Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
IFC Films | Release Date: November 19, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenNov 18, 2021
Some 40 years in the making, the remarkable Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a gorgeously rendered, unexpectedly moving appraisal of the life and craft of one of the best-loved literary voices of the late 20th century. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 26, 2022
It’s this aspect – the real warmth, the way the camera becomes almost incidental in the encounters between documentarian and subject – which gives this film its satisfying emotional depth. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 25, 2022
A very touching and insightful film. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid HughesJul 22, 2022
Selected readings from novels and short stories are imaginatively visualised, and the final sequences are profoundly moving. Vonnegut would have been proud of the finished film, although he did not live to see it. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerJul 21, 2022
Filmmaker Bob Weide’s relationship with Kurt Vonnegut may detract from a more incisive critical portrait but it is sweetly etched, and the unparalleled access provides a comical, compelling profile of a singular figure in 20th-century American letters. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 22, 2021
There is, nevertheless, something to be said for a documentary that tries to do something different and perhaps impossible, even if it doesn't quite get there. And in the end, any flaws or missed opportunities are subsumed by the movie's sincerity and wealth of insight. Read full review
70
Little White LiesMolly MortimerJul 25, 2022
Weide’s own infatuation with the acclaimed writer helps this documentary to become a very personal chronicle of an interesting and influential life. Weide creates a documentary that even those unfamiliar with Vonnegut and his legacy can enjoy. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterAngie HanNov 18, 2021
While approachable even to casual readers, thanks to patient explanations by scholars and biographers who’ve made Vonnegut their life’s work, the film isn’t really geared toward converting skeptics, revealing new information or even telling a really great yarn. It’s an opportunity to bask in Vonnegut’s wit and intelligence — to admire the crackerjack delivery of his jokes, savor the offbeat perfection of his prose, drink in the playfulness of his smile. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 18, 2021
That's where Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is most fascinating, in its exploration of the blurred lines between what who writers (and filmmakers) are, and what they write, and why they write. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiNov 16, 2021
The film pulls back the veil on Kurt Vonnegut to show how a gloomy dissatisfaction brooded underneath his quippy surface personality. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichNov 19, 2021
If “Unstuck in Time” offers an erudite and affectionate portrait of its subject despite being so oddly generic, Weide shares his own frustrations with it in such a plainspoken way that he can’t help but pass them along to us. Read full review
40
TheWrapSimon AbramsNov 18, 2021
Vonnegut’s family members and biographers provide the most intriguing material in Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, but their interviews are too brief to enhance viewers’ appreciation of his work. Read full review
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