Crisis
Elevation Pictures | Release Date: February 26, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
12
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Original-CinKim HughesMar 15, 2021
It’s not for lack of trying as Crisis has a terrific ensemble cast doing terrific work. But the film never sparks or soars. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 30, 2021
While Crisis can fairly be criticized as emotionally cold, with its heavy and humorless story generating more sympathy for its characters than empathy, there’s no denying its timeliness, offering a compelling look at what will certainly be remembered as one of the most underplayed tragedies of our time. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 26, 2021
It’s an ambitious reach, and the talented cast of mostly familiar names is game for the challenge, but Crisis goes over the top with too many key plot developments. The end result is a serious case of Messaging Exhaustion. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 1, 2021
It’s not enough merely to tell stories about different aspects of how drugs impact society – the connections have to be stronger and the narratives have to go deeper that what Jarecki has provided here. Crisis is well-meaning but ultimately unsatisfying. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyFeb 26, 2021
In a lot of ways, Crisis is a classic example of a movie that wants to be a little bit of everything, only to add up to a much lesser version of something you keep waiting to see. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 25, 2021
There is an honest bleakness to Jarecki’s tale that certainly matches the tragedy of the real-life opioid crisis, though all of it feels surface level. Without a central rooting interest that’s engaging, all of the drama suffers. There’s plenty to admire in Crisis, just not enough to recommend. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 25, 2021
The three stories could each have been their own movie, and probably a more compelling one than this mash-up turns out to be. Everybody gets in everybody else’s way for the first two and a half acts. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergFeb 25, 2021
The film is well-paced but often strains credulity. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussFeb 25, 2021
It’s a more modest Traffic in several ways, adequate at what it tries to say about this dirty business but light on the wider scope of the suffering that it causes. Because there actually is a crisis, maybe it should be addressed with more of an emphasis on authentic details than on genre conventions. Read full review
50
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 24, 2021
These stories are all tragic and sad and complex, and more than worthy of innumerable explorations. Many of them are even present in this film, even if nothing about them satisfies. Consider this one a crisis of its own: a well-meaning look at a world that never goes deeper than the surface. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 22, 2021
Ultimately, none of the storylines offers a surprise or tells us anything we don't already know, this many years into America's opioid ordeal. And arriving at a moment when Crisis could refer to so many other calamities, its failure to illuminate anything makes it feel like a distraction. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiMar 12, 2021
Crisis tries its hardest to be like Traffic, but fails in creating a satisfyingly thorough world with enough high stakes or tension. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleShane PfenderMar 11, 2021
The film’s narrative and characters reason that any difficult situation can be solved with blind brute force and a pistol. If you’re looking for a cutting critique of the American addiction industry, look elsewhere. Read full review
40
CNNBrian LowryFeb 26, 2021
The tragedy associated with such stories could provide fertile territory, theoretically, for a good drama about what went wrong and who's ultimately responsible. That movie might get made someday, but Crisis isn't it. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaFeb 24, 2021
Whatever its goals, the filmmaking is uninspired. It’s heavily reliant on clichés, especially in its use of score, the lone-wolf cop and familiar devices to build tension. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 22, 2021
Time and again, the film shortchanges the human elements of its stories for drug stats that can be Googled in a matter of seconds. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 23, 2021
This cinematic triple-decker sandwich is so overstuffed with baloney and cheese it ought to come with a pickle on the side. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah HagiMar 18, 2021
While the film is awful, Jarecki’s approach to filmmaking is still paint-by-numbers watchable, solely because the genre is familiar. The director has clearly watched enough movies to understand that pool halls and dive bars are good places for gangsters to hang out, that seedy deals happen in motel rooms and that a mother’s love is stronger than any other earthly force. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMar 16, 2021
The most Crisis will give you is the empty gift of occupying two, completely uneventful hours of your life. Read full review
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