Detropia
Loki Films | Release Date: September 7, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 21, 2012
The oddly beautiful documentary made by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Gray is subtler and richer than its blunt title suggests. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 5, 2012
It is a striking and moving study of "what was" versus "what it has become" as the filmmakers try to get at the whys. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbySep 26, 2012
This documentary film, about the deconstruction of a great American city, is surprisingly lyrical and often very moving. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 6, 2012
What the movie captures overall looks like a scene from a sci-fi, postapocalyptic nightmare. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 4, 2012
Imagine if Frederick Wiseman and David Lynch had a bastard child, and you'll get a sense of the movie's off-kilter aesthetic, a potent and pointed mix of firsthand observation and surreal flights of fancy. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 21, 2012
That Detropia won't be just another well-reported urban obituary is clear from the film's arresting opening moments. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 19, 2012
Detropia offers no solution to this crisis, and indeed there may be none. This documentary is more eulogy and elegy. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 6, 2012
The whole experience is one long rant in radiant colors. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubSam AdamsSep 5, 2012
The movie's attempt to position Detroit as the canary in the coal mine - there but for the grace of God goes any other city - falls flat, but it isn't a fatal flaw. It might not happen in any city, but for it to happen to one is bad enough. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghNov 6, 2012
Despite its emotional coldness, the film still manages to end on a note of something like hope.
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisSep 9, 2012
In this visual caress of postindustrial blight, disintegration has never looked so gorgeous. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 19, 2012
The title is an imagined word to describe a hard-to-imagine (but very real) place. Combine "Detroit" and "dystopia" (the opposite of utopia) and Detropia is what you get. Read full review
60
Village VoiceKarina LongworthSep 4, 2012
The filmmakers pay elegy to the Detroit of the Motown era, with its thriving middle class supported by manufacturing. At the same time, they're honest about the fact that the version of Detroit local partisans yearn for is long gone and most likely not coming back. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisSep 27, 2012
We are left to ponder whether this nightmare might be a harbinger of America's economic prospects. And that is a scary thought indeed. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 4, 2012
More impressionistic than enlightening, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia introduces us to some interesting citizens of Detroit and gives them a welcome opportunity to speak for themselves, but reveals little we don't already know. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveySep 4, 2012
Among several recent documentaries about Detroit, the elegiac Detropia is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing, if not the most informative or insightful. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSep 4, 2012
Seems to be looking for answers, but the ones it finds are too close to the surface to be satisfying. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 30, 2012
One only wishes that Ewing and Grady had chosen to dig deeper as they explored it. Read full review
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