Hooligan Sparrow
| Release Date: July 22, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt FagerholmJul 22, 2016
Regardless of their ultimate fate, the existence of Ye Haiyan and every soul she has ever sought to protect are undeniable, and thanks to filmmakers like Wang, immortal. Read full review
100
Village VoiceDiana ClarkeJul 20, 2016
Wang's film allows the public activist to be privately human, showing Ye at home with her lively daughter, sharing moments of friendship with other women activists or clearing brush and describing the hard rural lives of her family. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 9, 2016
The searing documentary Hooligan Sparrow is a portrait of courage. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Ming Wong Aug 25, 2016
Gripping and thrilling, Nanfu Wang’s debut documentary is a raw look at women’s-rights activism in China. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKatie WalshJul 12, 2016
Hooligan Sparrow is a vital reminder of the importance of artistic and journalistic freedom, and that telling certain stories can be an inherently perilous proposition — especially when those stories reveal something that the government would rather keep under wraps. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenJul 28, 2016
Against considerable odds, Wang managed to smuggle the various media out of China and back to her New York base where she adroitly edited it into a quietly powerful first feature about the untapped potential for bearing witness in our social media-driven society. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDuane ByrgeJul 12, 2016
Throughout, Wang makes a virtue out of necessity: Her on-the-run scoping and jarring cuts infuse the film with a sense of desperate danger befitting its subject matter. Read full review
80
CineVueLucy PopescuJul 12, 2016
Hooligan Sparrow is a chilling reminder of the extent of state repression and corruption in China. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 21, 2016
Hooligan Sparrow, which Ms. Wang also shot and skillfully edited, has the pulse of a mainstream thriller but without the pacifying polish and tidiness. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeJul 12, 2016
Wang’s film has a grass roots, on-the-ground urgency: nervy, paranoid camerawork gives a sense of the realities of life on the sharp edge of activism. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 21, 2016
Hooligan Sparrow is held tight on the strength of the solidarity it finds between these women, and while many other movies have more powerfully exposed the corruption of contemporary China, few have so articulately confronted the gendered weight of these prejudices, and how women always seem to be the first citizens to have their wings clipped. Read full review
67
The Film StageDaniel SchindelJul 12, 2016
Hooligan Sparrow struggles with the entrenchment of injustice both thematically and narratively, as it can’t quite find a way to cohere its story beyond sticking to the time Wang was with Ye. But that doesn’t diminish the courage of either filmmaker or subject. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJul 10, 2016
The Nanfu Wang film's noble aims are mirrored in its more frustrating and conventional qualities. Read full review
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