Point and Shoot
Orchard, The | Release Date: October 31, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
IndieWire John AndersonOct 30, 2014
Via his subject’s idiosyncracies – VanDyke is a habitual hand-washer and diagnosed OCD-ite – Curry starts to weave a subtle, but nonetheless eloquent critique not just of one man's compulsions, but a culture's. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernNov 6, 2014
His film is an essential, fascinating critique—and product—of our ''look at me'' culture. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 15, 2014
An extraordinary and quietly disturbing film. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerNov 20, 2014
Point and Shoot is a riveting documentary and a disturbing portrait of a pampered American’s “crash course in manhood.” Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughNov 20, 2014
Despite his neuroses, VanDyke displays self-awareness and humility, and a charisma that ranges from the goofiness of Owen Wilson to the grandiosity of his hero, Lawrence of Arabia. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 18, 2014
In a cinema recently overrun with combat documentaries, Marshall Curry’s Point and Shoot manages a first. Here’s a film that captures the romance of war amongst today’s young and testosterone-fueled. Want to know why young men from all over the world have flocked to fight for ISIS? Point and Shoot explains it. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 3, 2015
The story of Matt VanDyke, as told in the fascinating documentary Point and Shoot, is a vivid illustration of the ups and downs of reinvention. Read full review
80
Total FilmPhilip KempJan 15, 2015
Adventurer, narcissist or both? Marshall Curry’s riveting study of a momma’s boy turned freedom fighter never editorialises, leaving us to decide. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 11, 2014
Because VanDyke wasn’t embedded with the American media, Point and Shoot has some priceless front-line footage, including a chilling scene where he must decide if he’s willing to kill for someone else’s cause. But without a rigorous editor, it’s “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 5, 2014
Footage from VanDyke's travels provides the first-person narrative thrust to Point and Shoot, but Curry's interviews with VanDyke, back in his Baltimore home, are what give the film its larger, more challenging context. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 25, 2014
VanDyke might have set out to give himself a crash course in manhood, but Point and Shoot gives us a crash course in the myriad and contradictory things the word has come to mean. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghNov 20, 2014
Point and Shoot is a fascinating, frequently frustrating documentary. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenNov 15, 2014
A curious documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Marshall Curry that makes interesting observations about contemporary thrill seekers. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith UhlichOct 29, 2014
The more straightforward Point And Shoot seems, the more slippery it becomes. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 30, 2014
[An] incisive, queasy-making documentary. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 30, 2014
A compelling account of an ordinary guy who transformed himself through extraordinary circumstance. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoDec 4, 2014
The film raises significant questions about manhood and offers a few gripping sequences, but isn’t fully satisfying. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineClayton DillardOct 27, 2014
In abandoning a more vigorous discussion of class and race-based senses of entitlement, Marshall Curry reveals his goals to be less critical or rigid than passively honorific. Read full review
40
EmpireDavid ParkinsonJan 12, 2015
A strange story that's no less disturbing for its unbalanced telling. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTrevor JohnstonJan 12, 2015
Curry’s film hints at the role of media images in determining such self-conscious behaviour on the world’s frontlines, yet misses an opportunity to take VanDyke to task. Read full review
40
VarietyJay WeissbergNov 15, 2014
Curry’s interest is in obsession, not Libya, yet surely a corrective is needed, and dressing up a nation’s collapse as if it were an American triumph smacks of the same willful delusion as George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished.” Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 28, 2014
Matthew VanDyke, Point and Shoot's hero/subject, can't forget the mediated, imitative nature of his adventures even when he has dedicated himself to a grand cause. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsOct 31, 2014
Point and Shoot consequently feels like a film made by a storyteller — not a journalist — who doesn't know he can ask follow-up questions. Read full review
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