The Armstrong Lie
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Village VoiceChuck WilsonNov 5, 2013
To use a phrase from the film, The Armstrong Lie is a "myth-buster." It's wholly necessary, brilliantly executed, and a complete bummer. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangSep 17, 2013
Director Alex Gibney delivers not just a detailed, full-access account of his subject, in all his defiance, hubris and tentative self-reckoning, but also a layered inquiry into the culture of competitiveness, celebrity, moral relativism and hypocrisy that helped enable and sustain his deception. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramNov 14, 2013
You’d have to start looking into ancient Greek tragedy to top it as a showcase for pure, unadulterated hubris. That’s one of the things that makes The Armstrong Lie, which has more on its mind than the mere debunking of a tarnished hero, so worthwhile. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 7, 2013
He lies with such conviction it's terrifying. And his galling hubris is all there for audiences to watch, absorb and puzzle over in the fascinating The Armstrong Lie. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 6, 2013
It's a fascinating film that points the finger at a charismatic master of deception — as well as our willingness to buy his deceit. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJan 29, 2014
A master docu-maker gets the inside dope on a master dissembler. It requires stamina, but its charismatic subject exerts genuine magnetism. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJan 28, 2014
What will take your breath away is how viciously Armstrong crushed and humiliated anyone who dared to make allegations against him, and that includes former teammates he’d doped with. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 21, 2013
To call Armstrong’s story a tragedy is probably an overblown notion. But it does involve sadness, not just with its depiction of a fallen idol, but with the necessary acknowledgment that some of our own hopes and dreams fell alongside him. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 7, 2013
The whole truth about the complicated, charismatic man may never come out, but The Armstrong Lie is closer than we ever thought we'd get. Read full review
80
The Guardian Chris MichaelSep 17, 2013
Succeeds as a probing look into the mechanics of an epic lie, and because of the emotion at its heart. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 12, 2013
On a moral-justice level, we’d like to see this worm squirm a little more over his treatment of ex-colleagues before we let him off the hook to say that everyone else was cheating too. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 21, 2013
The Armstrong Lie is one for the time capsule, because it preserves for future generations a very particular modern response to scandal: confession without remorse. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 21, 2013
Gibney even convinced Armstrong to sit down for one final interview in May. In it, he comes off as somewhat contrite but also victimized, as if he were being single out for something everyone does. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubNov 14, 2013
Armstrong acted like a demon, but it becomes clear there were very, very few angels associated with the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comAli ArikanNov 8, 2013
The Armstrong story is fascinating. That someone could get away with such a huge lie in plain sight is terrifying. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 7, 2013
An idol had fallen, and Gibney and the superb director of photography Maryse Alberti were there to capture the descent, including a confessional interview in which Armstrong blames the corruption of the game far more than himself. The movie rambles at two-plus hours, but the provocation never stops. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergNov 6, 2013
Those who want to see Armstrong sweat may leave disappointed. Calm and seemingly well rehearsed in interviews, Armstrong shrugs off years of public statements without ever seeming truly remorseful. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 25, 2013
The Armstrong Lie goes on forever, perhaps because Gibney can’t believe that, like everyone else, he’s been had. Again and again, he looks for elements of moral clarity (never mind remorse) in Armstrong, and the cyclist looks back at Gibney (and at us) as if he were a fool. Read full review
70
NPRElla TaylorNov 8, 2013
If Gibney was looking for contrition, though, he didn't find it. Armstrong is candid about his doping and his legendary belligerence with the press. But he's confessing, not apologizing. And that "maybe not," mumbled to Oprah, is about as equivocal as he gets — on or off camera. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenNov 7, 2013
More glaringly than most sports documentaries, The Armstrong Lie reinforces the sad truth that the adage “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game” doesn’t apply to professional sports. Maybe it never did. Winning is everything. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 4, 2013
The chronology is confusing at times, but the film is never not fascinating. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijSep 17, 2013
A quite absorbing but never riveting or revelatory overview of Armstrong’s career and testy personality. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerDec 12, 2013
All of Gibney's movies are worth watching. The best ones – "We Steal Secrets" (about WikiLeaks), "Client 9" (about Spitzer) and "Taxi to the Dark Side" (about Afghanistan) – speak truth to power in daring, unexpected ways. The Armstrong Lie feels like wheel-spinning, outraged that Armstrong lied not only to millions of people but to Gibney and then not pushing the evidence to the finish line. Read full review
67
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 17, 2013
For all its flaws, the film offers as compelling and fair a summary of the case and the man for those less well-versed in the tale as you could ask for from a documentary. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 21, 2013
The Armstrong Lie is thorough, fair and thoughtful. It may not, however, close the book on the scandal. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 14, 2013
The Armstrong Lie gets going, and gets pretty good, when Gibney is able to focus on the 2009 Tour de France itself, a race fraught with old rivalries and backstage dramas. It's the movie he set out to make in the beginning, after all. But getting there is tough going. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartNov 7, 2013
Overall, Gibney does a fine job documenting the timeless nature of Armstrong’s fall from grace. It’s undeniably satisfying to see the man himself lay it out: “It’s very hard to control the truth forever,” he says, awkwardly. “This has been my downfall.” Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaNov 4, 2013
The film can't entirely avoid the feeling of a less-productive score-settling hit piece, as if Alex Gibney was making this film merely to stick it to the subject that screwed him big time. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesJan 27, 2014
A documentary of two halves, Gibney's character study of Armstrong is tough and forensic. But whether through a lingering admiration or the film's origins as a straightforward celebration of the cyclist's talents, there are moments when its powder remains a little dryer than perhaps it should. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 13, 2013
It wasn't until Gibney's film was already largely shot that the truth caught up to Armstrong. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 6, 2013
Given Armstrong’s squirminess on the couch, you’ll wish this profile had traded a portion of its deep background for a little in-the-moment boldness. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 17, 2013
The film leaves you enlightened and disillusioned, but still furious at Armstrong, who seems to have drawn the conclusion that he is now a tragic hero. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 7, 2013
The Armstrong Lie wears thin before it's over; the wafer-thin nature of the cyclist's personality can't sustain a two-hour running time. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 7, 2013
So the rhetorical strategy of The Armstrong Lie is both a strength and a weakness. Gibney’s films have always been about truth, lies and power, but for the first time he finds himself in the ambiguous philosophical terrain of Errol Morris, exploring the lies we tell ourselves. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 6, 2013
Having unfettered access to Armstrong during the 2009 Tour and a face-to-face sit-down with him in Austin hours after his national confession to Oprah, The Armstrong Lie comes across more a good save than a muckraking piece of journalism. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasNov 5, 2013
There are mysteries and ambiguities aplenty about Armstrong and the current state of professional cycling, but Gibney has trouble accessing them without getting in his own way. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 7, 2013
There’s so much more to this story — as any number of articles about the people he wronged attest — but this time, Gibney never really gets in gear. Read full review
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