Rodney King
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): April 28, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJun 21, 2020
Lee and Smith shine a damning, sorrowful light on American racism, through the shattered prism of spring 1992 in Los Angeles. With its dazzling wordplay and densely layered profusion of history and biography, Rodney King is an experience as cerebral as it is visceral. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 1, 2017
This is Smith's show, and it's all about the writing here, with Smith serving more as a town crier, an information delivery device in human form. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 28, 2017
The performance is austere and challenging, it takes us through the grim events, their aftermath and the long endgame of King’s life, but without the emollient or lenient notes that a Hollywood treatment might attempt. It is a requiem of a sort, and a sombre indication of all that has not yet healed, or been fixed. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 28, 2017
This is the second time Lee has filmed one of Smith’s plays, and like A Huey P. Newton Story, about the Black Panthers founder, it’s more of a valuable document of an event than a full-fledged movie. Read full review
67
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonApr 28, 2017
Lee is credited as a director for filming a live performance of Rodney King on an outdoor stage in New York. But Lee mostly seems to have loaned Smith his brand name to get the monologue attention. He doesn't leave a fingerprint on the play, and didn't care about where to put the cameras. The angles make no sense; the edits are clumsy. Read full review
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