I Am
Paladin (II) | Release Date: March 11, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
10
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 29, 2011
Although the choice of interviewees skews the movie in a New Age-y direction, there's less pseudoscience and more heart than in the kindred documentary "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyApr 28, 2011
Did I enjoy Shadyac's film? Very much. Do I think he made many of his points more accessibly and entertainingly in Bruce Almighty? You bet. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttMar 9, 2011
Documentaries have been coming down on humanity so hard in recent years -- from "An Inconvenient Truth" to the latest Oscar winner, "Inside Job" -- that it's refreshing to bask in a bit of optimism coming from a nonfictional film. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 27, 2011
The world is a whole lot more complex than Shadyac seems to realize. If all we need is love, wouldn't we all still be wearing tie-dyed shirts and headbands? Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 21, 2011
Give Shadyac credit: He sells his Pasadena mansion, starts teaching college and moves into a mobile home (in Malibu, it's true). Now he offers us this hopeful if somewhat undigested cut of his findings, in a film as watchable as a really good TV commercial, and just as deep. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMar 31, 2011
Shadyac doesn't film how his change inspires more change, or showing him, say, starting a school for destitute orphans. All we see him give is this movie. It's not much of a contribution. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBrian MillerMar 15, 2011
Embellished with a lot of CG, supporting clips, and lovely stock footage, I Am's basic tenets are hardly ridiculous: What's so funny about empathy, compassion, and love? Shadyac, looking like the lost triplet of Kenny G. and Al Yankovic, cheerfully indicts his own overconsumption first. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMar 10, 2011
What lifts the film above its dubious boilerplate assemblage of talking heads and archival images is Shadyac himself. With his gentle, self-mocking humor, he comes across as an exceptionally mellow, earnest and likable guy. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMar 9, 2011
An earnest, lumpy macramé of a personal nonfiction project. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonFeb 18, 2011
Shadyac spins cooperation in a different direction. I Am takes the sharing instinct as proof that all living beings are interconnected. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 17, 2011
If you believe that, as one interviewee says, "Science is just another story," then these ideas may ring true. If you're looking for actual solutions to global problems, rather than ways to feel better about them, I Am will be a frustrating experience. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinMar 10, 2011
Shadyac didn't need to channel his angst into narrative fiction: He just needed to look in the mirror to find a symbol of Hollywood's arrogance and misplaced priorities. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 18, 2011
Pay close attention to the title of Tom Shadyac's documentary. He will try to convince you his film is about humanity uniting to solve its problems. But somehow, his own ego keeps getting in the way. Read full review
38
Washington PostMark JenkinsMar 24, 2011
While I Am has its boogeymen - especially the rich, the racist and the ultra-competitive - Shadyac implicates himself whenever possible. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMar 3, 2011
For some, this sort of thinking is a much-needed revolution in human consciousness. For others, it's little more than New Age platitudes and questionable science. Read full review
20
Time OutAlison WillmoreMar 15, 2011
All of this touching and feeling makes I Am a so-awful-it's-mesmerizing mash-up of Hollywood entitlement and earnest goodwill. There's no questioning Shadyac's googly-eyed sincerity, but the film has all the depth of a late-night dorm-room exchange. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithMar 18, 2011
At the end, as Shadyac proclaims, "I stopped flying privately" (well, hurrah for you, Mahatma), renounces his Pasadena mansion and moves into a trailer park, the results of his epiphany grow funnier than any of his movies. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 21, 2011
It's hard to decide what rankles most: what an astonishing monument to Shadyac's self-absorption I Am is, or how flat-out bad – incompetent, even – the filmmaking is. Read full review
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