Meeting Gorbachev
The Orchard | Release Date: May 3, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMay 16, 2019
Defining a politician’s titan legacy in a singularly unexpected way, Meeting Gorbachev meets its expectations. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyApr 29, 2019
All thanks to Herzog’s keen eye at having a continuous fluid flow to the story and his subject’s willingness to lay bare in front of an audience, this is one of the most important documentaries of the year because it still feels fresh and relevant to our times. Read full review
82
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMay 3, 2019
The real show here is Herzog and Gorbachev, two of the most interesting people in the world, getting to know each other, asking the big questions, fumbling through small talk, and becoming friends. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid HughesNov 4, 2019
Herzog and Singer have assembled a riveting and moving portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president and arguably the greatest living politician, guided by Herzog's mellifluous voice and gently probing interview style. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 6, 2019
Historians of the period will learn nothing new from the movie, yet it remains a stirring enterprise, especially when it peers back, beyond the bright public record of Gorbachev’s heyday, into the mist of what feels like a distant past. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 2, 2019
As interviewers — and filmmakers — go, Mr. Herzog is one of a kind, his searching curiosity complemented by his instantly recognizable German accent. His new film, he goes out of his way to note, is a love letter. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMay 2, 2019
But if Meeting Gorbachev finds its subject mostly staying on a pro-peace, antinuclear message — and it’s a script that’s hard to argue with — Herzog shapes the film into a study in how world events often come down to quirks of character and circumstance. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 2, 2019
Meeting Gorbachev is a hagiography, but it’s unafraid to position itself as such; Herzog makes his case proudly and passionately. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellApr 29, 2019
Herzog has a knack for extracting pithy, poetic responses from his subjects, but here he outdoes himself. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMay 24, 2019
Several talking heads appear, including George Shultz, James Baker, and Lech Walesa. Tellingly, none of the interviewees is Russian. A running theme is that many Russians consider Gorbachev a traitor. “A tragic figure” Herzog calls him. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 22, 2019
An engaging and touching valedictory to one of the most pivotal figures of the 20th century. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 17, 2019
Because the potential is extraordinary, it’s a surprise that the film, co-directed by Herzog and Andre Singer, is so conventional and enthusiastic, bordering on adoring. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 3, 2019
What makes Meeting Gorbachev most interesting is the way we see Herzog shape the narrative through his questions, narration, and filmmaking skills. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiMay 1, 2019
Werner Herzog’s documentary is a rare example of the arch ironist’s capacity to be awed not by nature but by man. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichApr 29, 2019
Not since Klaus Kinski has Herzog aimed his camera at such an uncontrollable subject, and that includes the erupting peaks of “Into the Volcano” and the radioactive crocodiles in “The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 2, 2019
Less a journalistic endeavor than an admirer’s tour — with room for blackly funny Herzog-ian touches in his choice of archival clip or patently demonic voice-over. Read full review
70
SlateJoshua KeatingMay 2, 2019
The moment when things clicked into place for me was when Herzog, in his trademark Bavarian deadpan, read a quotation from Alexander Yakovlev, one of Gorbachev’s key advisers during perestroika: “It was as if we were blind men trying to trade a mirror to deaf people in exchange for a balalaika”—a Herzogian image if there ever was one. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberApr 29, 2019
Herzog’s film may not be the final word on Gorbachev, but it is affectionate and candid and leaves audiences in a melancholy mood about the sometimes short-lived nature of reform. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 23, 2019
Despite the film’s obvious interest, it is a bit conceited and stately, a little like Wim Wenders’ movie about Pope Francis, though without the sycophancy. Read full review
60
VarietyJessica KiangApr 29, 2019
We might have hoped for a more sparky encounter, but Meeting Gorbachev, though consistently engaging, is less a fireworks display than a fireside chat, and so feels curiously like an opportunity missed. Read full review
58
The Film StageEli FriedbergMay 24, 2021
In a rare moment of open self-criticism, Gorbachev ponders that he was perhaps “too soft” on those traitorous countrymen who rallied to unseat him; that he ought to have had them “sent away.” It’s the lone sobering, tantalizing, self-aware peek into the savage realpolitik lurking beneath his noble words. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloApr 30, 2019
The movie finally achieves some belated emotional power when it addresses, in its final minutes, Gorbachev’s beloved wife, Raisa, who died of leukemia in 1999. It does so, however, via clips from an entirely different documentary, Vitaly Mansky’s "Gorbachev: After Empire" (2001). Why not just watch that film, since Meeting Gorbachev never so much as mentions any event that’s happened since? Read full review
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