Memory: The Origins of Alien
Screen Media Films | Release Date: October 4, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 4, 2019
It weaves every detail — whether provided by an on-camera witness, a document, a drawing, a painting or a photograph — around that set of intertwined arguments, which are too complex to explain in this review, but come across powerfully by the time the credits roll. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyOct 3, 2019
This is a hearty, four-course meal for film fans, which, once again, demonstrates that the study of a film can be just as invigorating an experience as the actual film itself. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganOct 3, 2019
Although MEMORY follows some templates of the format, trying to lock Alien into a cultural and political framework, the film itself transcends that obviousness. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 3, 2019
“Memory” captures the hypnotic layers of history and meaning that were folded into the shock value of “Alien.” Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 3, 2019
Philippe earns his keep, not only by mounting a crisp, elegant production well above the standard of your typical video-lensed making-of, but by skewing toward anecdotes that most corporate clients would frown upon. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 3, 2019
A rich and diverting piece of film scholarship. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhil HoadSep 26, 2019
What this solemn and enlivening documentary plunge into the history of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic reiterates is the idea of film as a collective art form – not just the wider circle of writers, performers and technicians beyond the director, but in the case of the truly great films, serendipitous access to a deeper collective unconscious to which we all have the keys – even if few know how to use them. Read full review
78
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiOct 3, 2019
With its passionate contributors and lofty ideas, Memory: The Origins of Alien demonstrates that, if nothing else, the study of a film can be as exciting as the film itself. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpOct 10, 2019
Alien takes the long way around the barn to get from its creator’s fundamental psychic “stuff” to the genre classic it is today; Memory: The Origins of Alien, dissects the journey from concept to conception in microscopic detail, and w Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 3, 2019
Saving some of the best for last, director Philippe makes outstanding use of footage of what in the trade is called the money shot, the startling payoff that everything has been building toward — in this case, of course, the scene featuring the “chestburster.” Read full review
70
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergOct 3, 2019
While it is generally engaging to learn about the influences of the screenwriter Dan O’Bannon or the artistic process of H.R. Giger (who designed the alien), the documentary is at its least fawning when it focuses on technique. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellOct 3, 2019
Memory certainly makes a good go of it, weaving together industrial production history with its mythic, pulp and artistic inspirations. The disparate strands of Alien’s origins have never quite been connected like this in a popular documentary, but billing this as the “untold story” of Scott’s film is a bit of a stretch. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentOct 3, 2019
Falls slightly short of being the definitive Alien doc, but Memory is slick and thoughtful, and will deepen your love of a classic. Read full review
60
Film ThreatNorman GidneyOct 3, 2019
Alexandre O. Philippe is a fine filmmaker and documentarian. Memory – The Origins of Alien, however, is a bit of a class on story structure and theory. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottOct 3, 2019
An admirably full portrait of a film that reflects, with thrilling discomfort, the darker recesses of our minds. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 3, 2019
Caught somewhere between a genealogy project, an oral history, and an in-depth video essay about the iconic scene that seared “Alien” into our imaginations, it reaffirms the film’s basic power without probing deeply enough to achieve any power of its own. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 1, 2019
The result often feels superficial; it is neither a definitive account of the creation of Scott’s touchstone of horror and sci-fi, nor a cogent analysis of its aestheticized subtexts, those gritty and unnerving surfaces and the things lurking underneath. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 3, 2019
Essentially, Memory is too superficial a treatment of the chestburster sequence to validate making half of a movie about it, and it’s also too lengthy an exploration of it to give the other elements of the movie their proper due. Read full review
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