In the Same Breath
HBO Documentary Films | Release Date: August 13, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 18, 2021
If In the Same Breath — the title becomes more resonant with each new scene and shock — were simply about China and its handling (mishandling) of the pandemic, it would be exemplary. But the story that she tells is larger and deeper than any one country because this is a story that envelops all of us, and it is devastating. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsAug 12, 2021
With her harrowing film In the Same Breath, Wang has established herself as the preeminent documenter of the pain inflicted by oppressive regimes on their people. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 12, 2021
At the simplest level, the stories of trauma and loss told in In the Same Breath exist as a necessary corrective. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 10, 2021
In Wang Nanfu’s extraordinary documentary, contemporary political structures are as much of a disease as Covid-19, and, in the long run, the deadlier foes. Read full review
90
TheWrapCarlos AguilarFeb 4, 2021
Once Wang gets into the murky waters of the hoaxers here, one wishes she could dig deeper and examine the evolution of those fringe factions at length. That unfortunately doesn’t happen — likely given how much ground there is to cover with this story — yet her hard-hitting doc, both explores complex ideological battles and maps how a humanitarian calamity morphed into a political one in both countries. Read full review
100
CineVueMatthew AndersonFeb 2, 2021
A galling, distressing but enthralling documentary. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 31, 2021
The film’s form is glancing, exploratory, open to the moment. Yet Nanfu Wang captures things that other documentaries leave out, like the private emotions bred by policies of neglect. And her theme, in the end, is larger than you think. It’s that big governments failed to control the virus because their real investment was in controlling everything else. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeJan 31, 2021
The picture draws parallels between China and the US when it comes to botched and skewed deployment of information. Read full review
80
The GuardianCharles BramescoJan 31, 2021
Business as usual has largely resumed in Wuhan, but Wang’s film contends that that’s just the problem. The same apparatuses of messaging and censorship are still in operation, ensuring that the full extent of the malfeasance may never be fully known Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 31, 2021
Even when accessing the situation remotely via camera operators and citizen journalists on the ground, Wang deftly balances factoids with first-hand experiences to show the emotional cost, both for people unable to say goodbye to their loved ones and front-line health care workers and funeral home staff, absorbing the trauma of unrelenting losses. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJan 31, 2021
Wang’s absorbing first-person account of the coronavirus outbreak initially seems like it’s treading familiar ground, tracking the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan and government propaganda efforts to pretend it’s under control. With time, however, Wang turns the tables on her Western audience, illustrating how those same lies emanated from American airwaves months later. Read full review
90
Film ThreatSabina Dana PlasseJan 31, 2021
Through Wang’s intimate and gifted storytelling, and her filmmaking abilities, she offers a lens of understanding to the delicate nature of life and death, especially for the frontline men and women who were tackling this faceless and mysterious illness changing life as we know it. Read full review
75
The Film StageDavid KatzJan 31, 2021
What emerges most clearly, in Wang’s argument, is the pandemic being as much of a battle between citizens and their lawmakers, as against humanity versus an ever-mutating virus. Read full review
More From This Movie

85 Critic Reviews

4.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL