Control Room
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: May 21, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Here's the sliver of hope: In contrast to everything we've been told, the people who run Al Jazeera turn out to be decent and level headed. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A riveting new documentary about the Arab-run Al Jazeera network, reminds us that news programming can vary so widely from place to place that journalistic myths of "objectivity" and "impartiality" seem more naive than ever. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's strong stuff. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
About the search for common ground, among journalists on all sides of the conflict and, through them, between viewers in America and the Arab world. Only within that common ground, Noujaim believes, can something like a workable, personal truth be found. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
One of the year’s most significant films. Read full review
90
Film ThreatTim Merrill
In the end, the greatest achievement of Control Room may be to simply remind us, as Americans, that in this age of mega-corporate U.S. news media there are other perspectives on world events besides those of Fox, CNN, MSNBC-ABCBS and whoever else feeds us our information. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A surprising, puzzling and in many ways brilliant work. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Perception is key and Control Room should be required viewing for anyone within reach of a TV signal. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Control Room ends by acknowledging that independence, accuracy and even truth itself may be illusory. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Control Room may not seem all that compelling 10 years down the road. But right now, at this very moment, it is essential, imperative viewing. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Control Room is even more effective in showing the dilemma of the people who make up Al-Jazeera. In a sense, these are "our" Arabs, in that they're Western-educated, conduct their business in English and seem to believe in the basic American principles. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
News management is the main issue. Control Room shows how coverage is tailored to fit the audience, both by al-Jazeera and its Western counterparts.
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Think of Control Room as a through-the-looking-glass movie. Like Lewis Carroll's Alice, viewers of this remarkable documentary will be disconcerted by a glimpse of a world where everything is reversed. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
May be most valuable for its depiction of the strength of democratic ideals, even in the most precarious and contradictory of circumstances. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Whatever your opinions about the war, the conduct of the journalists who covered it and the role of Al Jazeera in that coverage, you are likely to emerge from Control Room touched, exhilarated and a little off-balance, with your certainties scrambled and your assumptions shaken. Read full review
80
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Compelling docu about the independent Arab news service, Al Jazeera. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Remarkable and timely film. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This absorbing, significant, and shamelessly entertaining movie not only goes through the looking glass but, no less significantly, turns the mirror back on us. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
If any film can be considered required viewing as the conflict in Iraq continues to drag on and be reported, surely this among them. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Gripping footage about the controversial Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, which transmits news to 40 million Arabs. But the movie offers neither lucid analyses of the channel nor probing portraits of its journalists. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
More illuminating than not. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
If her (Noujaim's) movie teaches us anything, it's that no reality remains unspun. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Engrossing. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Control Room isn't a systematic dissection of Al Jazeera's possible biases regarding the U.S. or Israel; it's noted that Arabs almost invariably view the war with Iraq in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while Americans rarely do. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film's buried message is that there is a reservoir of admiration and affection for America, at least among the educated classes in the Arab world, and they do not equate the current administration with America. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Enlightening, if structurally relaxed documentary. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Scenes of dark humor abound as well, like the episode in which the gathered journalists react in fury when they are not provided with pictures of the infamous deck of playing cards depicting the "50 Most Wanted" Iraqi figures. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
There is no narrator; rather, we are invited to eavesdrop on--or to get an earful from--such figures as Hassan Ibrahim, a jovial reporter with Al Jazeera, and Samir Khader, one of the network’s senior producers. [24 May 2004, p. 97]
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
It puts us in the shoes of men and women for whom the war is not something distant and intangible but a bloodbath in their own back yard, which makes them the very definition of embedded journalists. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Shot during the March 2003 invasion and the early stages of the American occupation, it tells us more about how the channel decides what to report than we probably know about most American newscasts. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyBrendan Bernhard
Memorable, if not fully satisfying, film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Anxiety-provoking documentary. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
It is easy to point out gaps in Noujaim's account. (What, for instance, about the rebuilding that tries to go forward in Iraq?) But the prime importance of this film, I'd say, is that it is not an eye-opener. Of course this change in reporting, this bilateralism, has occurred so far only in wars where the U.S. was the overwhelming superior in force. Read full review
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