The Central Park Five
Sundance Selects | Release Date: November 23, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 30, 2012
What we do see, among much else that is damning, are archival NYPD videotapes of the boys being interrogated by detectives who press them to implicate one another in exchange for a leniency that never materialized. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnNov 20, 2012
With an editing approach that seamlessly blends past and present, Central Park Five contains a fluid, engaging storytelling that does away with the dry voiceover commentary and theatrical music choices that typically account for the narrative flow of most Burns films. Read full review
90
NPRMark JenkinsNov 23, 2012
Its greatest advantage over the book is that this is a story well-documented in moving pictures. In addition to recent interviews with the five, the filmmakers deftly marshal news footage, clips from the supposed confessions, and trenchant analysis. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 13, 2012
If the second hour or so isn't as strong as the first, it's because the filmmaking fails to rise to the injustice that's befallen its subjects since their exoneration. It can't, really. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 6, 2012
An unusually good documentary about an outlandish miscarriage of justice. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 6, 2012
The case transfixed a racially polarized New York City. The teens were labeled as a "wolf pack" by the news media, led by the New York tabloids. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 13, 2012
If there's one thing missing, it's a sense of purposeful, immediate outrage. You can't help but wonder why this film wasn't made 20 years ago, when it could have saved these men some time behind bars. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 20, 2012
This patient, righteous documentary by Ken Burns, David McMahon, and Sarah Burns recounts the story of justice undone (a serial rapist confessed) with extensive interviews, a thorough use of archival footage, and a less-than felicitous use of ominous-rumble music that unnecessarily insists, Isn't this an outrage? Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyDec 3, 2012
Central Park is at first discomforting, then enraging, then illuminating. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 29, 2012
It projects equal parts fury and despair as it reveals how a particular group of individuals was caught in the unforgiving gears of the criminal justice system. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 29, 2012
It's a different city today, in a country that sees its racial and social divides with more clarity than it did back then. But the most troubling question the film raises is how clearly we may see even now. Read full review
80
Village VoiceCasey BurchbyNov 20, 2012
Because the filmmakers were unable to enlist anyone from the NYPD or the DA's office to participate, we are left with the sense that mistakes of this magnitude require those in error to hide from them. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 20, 2012
The attention to detail is fine-grained, especially on the slippery slope of plea bargaining. Missing are two pieces that might have turned this into an urban classic. Read full review
80
VarietyAlissa SimonNov 19, 2012
Mixing a breathtaking array of archival materials with new talking-head interviews, the film analyzes the monumental miscarriage of justice repped by the 1989 Central Park Jogger case. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyNov 16, 2012
A meticulously reported chronicle of a case that shook New York in 1989 and remains a mark of shame on the city ten years after the convictions were vacated, the film incisively documents a travesty of justice that echoes the infamous Scottsboro Boys railroading of the 1930s. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 13, 2012
Worth seeing, both for the ways it's timeless and for the ways it encapsulates an era. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayNov 23, 2012
This is a movie about a rush to judgment in a city on edge, and it never expands its scope or meaning over the course of its two-hour running time. But the specifics make the story powerful regardless. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 21, 2012
Measured in tone and outraged in its argument, it is an emotionally stirring, at times crushingly depressing cinematic call to witness. It's also frustrating because while it re-examines the assault on the jogger and painstakingly walks you through what happened to the teenagers - from their arrest through their absolution - it fails to add anything substantively new. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierNov 16, 2012
Though relentlessly and admirably logical, the movie constantly glosses over the buried human element. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickNov 21, 2012
Ultimately fails to make its case that five teenagers were sent to jail for a crime they didn't commit solely because of institutional racism. Read full review
More From This Movie

79 Critic Reviews

8.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL