Rich Hill
| Release Date: August 1, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 21, 2014
Rich Hill doesn’t just make you feel like you know these boys; it makes you care about them. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireAug 1, 2014
It emerges as an artistic statement as multi-faceted, nuanced and hauntingly original as any of its fictional counterparts. Read full review
91
The PlaylistKatie WalshFeb 3, 2014
A truly moving and edifying film, Rich Hill is the type of media object that could and should be put in a time capsule for future generations. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 15, 2014
Their film would be even more compelling if it followed up with further reports, perhaps a few years apart, charting the three boys' fates. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 14, 2014
Rich Hill might fairly be called “Boyhood: The Documentary,” and, not surprisingly, it offers a reality harsher than — if just as compassionate as — Richard Linklater’s dreamy time-lapse drama. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 7, 2014
Co-directors Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos let the painful stories emerge naturally, without prodding questions or talking-head experts who place the boys’ grim lives in the larger context of the post-industrial economy. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithAug 6, 2014
Frustrating, at times agonizing, the film is nonetheless dappled with a sad beauty. It’s one of the best documentaries of the year. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJan 27, 2014
There are moments when Tragos and Palermo run the risk of transforming their subjects into tools exploited for the sake of the movie's artistic vision, but the best part of Rich Hill is that its participants rise above the limitations of the material. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghAug 21, 2014
The brutally sparse documentary Rich Hill removes poverty from the realm of the abstract and makes it personal. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 4, 2014
This vital documentary gives you a world of hurt, prescribes nothing, and calls the ultimate questions you can ask as an American. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 31, 2014
Inside these average American lives are futures far too often passed over or, worse, written off. This terrific film gives the teenagers their due. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasJul 29, 2014
Make no mistake: Rich Hill is a social document, and conclusions can and should be drawn from its beautiful, empathetic portrait of life on the fringes. But Tragos and Palermo content themselves with shining a light and leaving it at that. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 28, 2014
Everything about the three principal teens registers as deserving of “human interest” to Rich Hill’s two helmers, whose generous attitude draws us into this deeply empathetic film. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDuane ByrgeJan 27, 2014
Often heartbreaking, Rich Hill presents real life as few filmgoers know it. In certain respects it’s almost as if cultural anthropologists descended on a foreign land, but, unfortunately, it’s a withered part of this nation that is rarely visited. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 21, 2014
The confluence of poverty, dysfunctional parenting and poor educational prospects makes the oft-idealized small-town life look like an incubator for failure, no matter how high and spectacular the Fourth of July fireworks fly. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 31, 2014
The movie exists mainly as an act of social advocacy, showing how one portion of the population lives and offering a sobering rebuke to pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps rhetoric. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldJul 31, 2014
Regular hazily scored, gauzy interludes cut into the film’s immediacy and tone. But the filmmakers shade in humble, sympathetic portraits of these children. Read full review
60
Village VoiceSerena DonadoniJul 29, 2014
Rich Hill does not add up to more than a series of vignettes. What it offers is a compassionate look at the intricacies of American poverty, where joblessness is only one factor. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAug 20, 2014
Rich Hill attempts to lay bare these kids’ lives, striving for gentle intimacy, but the result feels more like arthouse pandering. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineClayton DillardJul 29, 2014
Rich Hill is poverty porn, examining lower-class spaces with pity as its operative mode and engendering little more than a means for viewers to leave the film acknowledging its sadness. Read full review
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