Quest
First Run Features | Release Date: December 8, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonDec 29, 2017
A moving, quite amazing documentary. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyDec 8, 2017
Only 90 minutes long, the film feels intimate and yet at the same time vast. It has a relaxed pace, but an intensity of focus. Read full review
100
VarietyGuy LodgeDec 7, 2017
[A] living, breathing, stunning documentary. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubJosh ModellDec 7, 2017
There’s enough material in these years to make for half a dozen more focused documentaries, but none could hope to be as heartbreaking and redemptive as this panoramic longview. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenDec 14, 2017
Olshefski excerpts and shapes the passing years with a fluent intimacy that makes the calamitous intrusion of random gun violence, and its lasting effect on the Raineys’ daughter, PJ, all the more shocking. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 7, 2017
Quest is intimate, warm yet unsentimental and agreeably rambling, at least for a while. It’s an extended visit, squeezed into 104 minutes, with intensely likable people who are doing their best to hold things together, and, if possible, get a bit ahead. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 7, 2017
I’ve rarely seen a movie about citizenship as quietly eloquent as Quest. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlDec 7, 2017
[A] tender, humane, gently probing film. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzFeb 22, 2018
There is no grand narrative or point to be hammered home; instead, Olshefski delivers a subtle, sincere and honest portrait of barely making ends meet in modern America. Read full review
88
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 9, 2017
In the end, what Quest gives you is not just well-earned empathy but the pleasure of the Raineys' company, and that is what genuinely makes it worth seeking out and seeing ASAP. Read full review
88
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonNov 30, 2017
A movie that could have been about loss and defeat becomes something else — a testament to spiritual stamina, to the power of family bonds and their importance to homes, to streets, to neighborhoods and to cities. Read full review
83
The PlaylistBradley WarrenDec 7, 2017
It is Olshefski’s humanist portraiture of one family’s quotidian lives that is certain to stir audiences. Read full review
83
IndieWireJude DryDec 7, 2017
Even as Quest toys with expectations, (there are no chart toppers to be found here), the triumphs in Quest are much harder to spot, though they are mighty; love, family, and hope in the face of adversity. Nothing could be more harmonious. Read full review
80
Time OutHelen O'HaraDec 9, 2017
The resulting account contains a quietly powerful political statement. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt LookerDec 7, 2017
Filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski illuminates the rich, strife-filled lives of these extraordinary people. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 7, 2017
By the end of Quest, I felt melancholy about saying goodbye to the Raineys and sad that I wouldn’t know where their lives would go from here. Read full review
67
The Film StageMichael SnydelDec 7, 2017
There’s a great documentary in Quest, but this is a case of a film that’s trying to cover too many things, and thus only muddles its own intentions. Read full review
60
The GuardianPhil HoadDec 7, 2017
Sadly, the problems affecting the Raineys, the African American family whose north Philadelphia home accommodates this heartening documentary, are all too familiar: poverty, drugs, gun violence. Read full review
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