Must Read After My Death
Gigantic Releasing | Release Date: February 20, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
At its heart, and there is a great heart to be discovered here, Morgan Dews' documentary Must Read After My Death is a searing and intimate account of an unconventional woman struggling not to lose her identity or her sanity in the rigid 1950s suburban world of stay-at-home moms, well-behaved children and sparkling-clean houses. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What an anguished story it tells, of a marriage from hell. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Did granny intend this stuff for strangers? We'll never know. File this ''therapeutic'' movie, well made and creepy, on the dysfunction-as-art shelf next to "Capturing the Friedmans." Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Dews perhaps makes too much of the notion that Allis was a woman out of her time – a feminist precursor. This is too sociological a formulation for such a patently psychological crisis. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
The secrets revealed here are not quite as shocking as the hints of child molestation captured in "Friedmans." Still, this is an equally intriguing and unsettling look at the turmoil hidden behind the white picket fences of suburbia. Read full review
80
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Watching the American nightmare of Must Read After My Death play out, it's impossible not to be both horrified and powerfully moved. Impossible as well not to feel profound admiration for the artfulness with which Dews has pieced these archival cries for help into a singular creation anyone who appreciates first rate filmmaking absolutely must see. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Intensely compelling documentary. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
The relentless negativity in Must Read After My Death can become overwhelming at times, but it's undeniably mesmerizing. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
As with "Capturing the Friedmans," the documentary is grueling to sit through. Yet the greasy, guilty thrill of being privy to your neighbors' most intimate dramas makes it impossible to stop watching. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Horror and social value contend for equal honors in Must Read After My Death, a frightening -- and eerily edifying -- documentary that Morgan Dews created from a family trove of photos, Dictaphone letters, audiotapes, voluminous transcripts and home movies. Read full review
60
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Dews helps Allis hold out a gendered posthumous snapshot of an era whose smug surface, barely masking oceans of suffering, makes "Revolutionary Road" look like a tea party. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
An alternately fascinating and disquietingly intimate portrait of a 1960s American family falling apart. Read full review
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