Tell Them Who You Are
THINKFilm | Release Date: May 13, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A superb portrait of a father and son disguised as a docu about Haskell Wexler. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A remarkable work -- lively, painful, humorous, deeply revealing of both father and son -- that is worthy of one of Hollywood's finest directors of photography. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Near the beginning of the movie, the younger Wexler admits that the film is his attempt to get closer to his father. This sense of personal mission helps make Tell Them Who You Are the richest documentary of its kind since Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb." Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What Mark does, better perhaps than either he or his father realizes, is to capture some aspects of a lifelong rivalry that involves love but not much contentment. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Funny, touching, vital. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
As fascinating as all the film history is, the movie's core is the dynamic between a famous but distant parent and his child. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A strange, strident and finally fulfilling father-son saga. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The elder Wexler keeps insisting that he won't sign a release for the film unless he approves of the finished product, so he must have been pleased with its brutally honest assessment of him as a gifted filmmaker who never realized his true potential. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
What makes this movie deeply fascinating is the fight Haskell wages. As the semi-willing subject of this movie, he's determined to gain the upper hand or, at least, come out somewhat sympathetic. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Possibly without meaning to, the younger Wexler has made a superb examination not of professional cinematography -- really, who cares? -- but of the eternal bad business between fathers and sons. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Chicago-bred Haskell is such an intense, contentious, prickly figure, he would tend to take over any film portrait, and he definitely dominates here. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A fascinating glimpse of family love and rivalry, if not a deep-digging documentary of "My Architect" quality. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Breezy and informative. It offers a view of the talented, opinionated man that only his son could pull off. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Beneath its exploration of fatherly distance, this is really a portrait of why cranks make better artists than earnest nice guys. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Engaging and perceptive. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
In more ways than one, Mark Wexler gets the release he's seeking. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A compelling look at the great cinematographer Haskell Wexler by his photojournalist son Mark. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Busting with clips from films Haskell Wexler shot and directed, the doc is a rare thing: an ingenuous portrait of a thoroughly Four-Square Artist, Assembled With Love And Rockets Inside A Family's Spite-Tainted Gates. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
In the new, personal documentaries in which you pick up a camera to help get a grip on your own life, there is a queasy line between inspiration and therapy. Mark Wexler crosses back and forth over that line. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The last word on Haskell Wexler's career hasn't been spoken, but it's hard to imagine there's much more to say about him as a bad dad. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Fascinating for the issues--ethical, aesthetic, psychoanalytic--it raises. But it doesn't fully come together. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
He has had a notable career, and I wish there had been more specifics about it in the film. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid Parkinson
A desperately sad look at two men whose determination to rebel against their heritage and succeed in their artform has rendered them unable to communicate. Compelling stuff, though. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Tell Them Who You Are is indulgent by design, and the elder Wexler may be right about his son's aesthetic failings. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Haskell comes off as a jerk -- but Mark somehow looks even worse: not just insincere but weak, vain and vindictive. Read full review
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