Payback
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: April 25, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 21, 2012
Payback is nothing if not brave. It's a documentary attempt to give concrete shape to an abstract discussion, using the medium of film to transplant a nuanced thesis – on the concept of debt – from its natural home on the printed page. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 25, 2012
Payback attempts something impressively difficult, but it succeeds primarily in its individual moments. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJun 21, 2012
Debt is bad, we can all agree, as is its conceptual cousin, greed. It would have been intellectually bracing, though, to have a Gordon Gekko equivalent on hand to argue otherwise. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineBill WeberApr 24, 2012
This documentary on the many forms of human debt, though often frustratingly broad, offers a path to balancing civilization's ledger with a hard-nosed brand of altruism. Read full review
60
NPRMark JenkinsApr 27, 2012
Ultimately, this intriguing but scattershot movie turns on the incompatibility of two worldviews - the corporate-financial vs. the environmental-spiritual. Read full review
60
Time OutAndrew SchenkerApr 24, 2012
While the movie occasionally stretches too far to maintain thematic coherence, its momentum is sustained by the urgency of its case studies, as well as the sense of outrage at the injustices perpetuated at the behest of powerful monetary interests and its striking imagery. Read full review
60
VarietyRob NelsonApr 21, 2012
Payback is a rarefied conceptual documentary that will appeal to a limited but highly appreciative audience. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. MusettoApr 27, 2012
All are subjects worthy of discussion, but tackling them in one film disrupts the movie's momentum and shortchanges viewers. Baichwal could have devoted a single film to just BP's disgraceful behavior. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 24, 2012
You can't help feeling that the movie owed its subject - and its audience - a bit more. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark HolcombApr 24, 2012
Cinematic globe-trotting doesn't necessarily trump reading a good book, it turns out; then again, more movies should be burdened with the flaw of being too intellectually curious. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDuane ByrgeApr 21, 2012
Aesthetically, it's desultory. Talking-heads rants and ruminations are further stultified by the amateurish aesthetics. Visually, zooms, pans and filler moments enervate the message. Most annoying, the dour music grates throughout; its hollow grinding, we'd guess, is an attempt to impart profundity. Read full review
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