The Great Hack
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): July 24, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 23, 2019
Anyone who says voting is a waste of time needs to watch this film. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 24, 2019
The Great Hack couldn’t be more timely, or unsettling. An intentionally disturbing examination of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it both explains and offers a warning shot about the misuse of personal data and how that influenced past elections and might well do so in the future. Read full review
80
Time OutTomris LafflyJul 23, 2019
While it lacks the emotional intensity of the duo’s Oscar-nominated The Square—a rousing 2013 look at Egypt’s Arab Spring—The Great Hack still feels of a piece, inviting viewers to contemplate the power and irreversibility of their online footprint. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJul 23, 2019
If the paranoia level could probably withstand a slight reduction, much of the movie feels utterly credible. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 8, 2020
Have we learned anything? Have the “Bond villains” at the heart of this story been discouraged from repeating their actions? Do we have any idea what can be done, and is anything at all BEING done? Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanJul 24, 2019
At its best, The Great Hack will alarm you, infuriate you, and — hopefully — activate you. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 24, 2019
The Great Hack will be catnip for data wonks and mathematicians, but I sense its desired purpose is to be a cautionary tale for the general viewer. I think it’s a tad too long and a bit too wishy-washy when it should be angrier, but I was fascinated by it for a very specific personal reason. Read full review
70
TheWrapRobert AbeleJul 24, 2019
As eye-opening and propulsive as the movie is, Amer and Noujaim don’t always keep the thread of their multi-faceted narrative, which was going to be a daunting task for any well-meaning filmmaker trying to give you arresting personalities while parsing complex aspects of the digital world. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJul 23, 2019
You know you’re in the hands of professionals here — Noujaim was a director or co-director on such solid nonfiction works as "Startup.com" (2001), "Control Room" (2004), and "The Square" (2013) — even if the proceedings sometimes come off like Muckraking Moviemaking 101. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergJul 11, 2019
The Great Hack uses a decent rehash of the Cambridge Analytica scandal as the starting point for an interesting two-pronged character study, an instigation for provocative ideas about data crime and what is ultimately a really, really, really conflicted look at when it's terrifying having corporations learning things about our online habits and when it's cool. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJul 11, 2019
No matter what form it takes, The Great Hack exists as a giant contradiction sure to evoke strong responses from anyone impacted by its drama, which is basically everyone. Read full review
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJul 25, 2019
The Great Hack isn’t revealing much that hasn’t been reported elsewhere, but it’s powerful in the ways it does so. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJul 23, 2019
There’s no satisfying end point to this movie (which premiered at Sundance as a 135-minute work in progress; over 20 minutes have since been trimmed), which reaches its alarmist conclusion quite early on and then functions more as a frustratingly sporadic video diary. Read full review
58
The PlaylistChris BarsantiJul 23, 2019
It’s a sign of how quickly it feels like the world is being torn apart around us that even a ripped-from-the-headlines documentary, such as Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim’s The Great Hack, can feel almost dated. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 25, 2019
These are interesting and fraught times that deserve an unflinching look at the perils of data rights and online privacy, but The Great Hack is a reminder that documentaries are not always journalism. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 24, 2019
Privacy issues aside (and I’m second to none in my concern about them), the movie, in its ham-fisted fashion, is trying to come up with some way to regulate what it despises. Read full review
45
The VergeAdi RobertsonJul 11, 2019
The film spends more time dramatizing the scandal’s worst-case scenario than examining the facts — producing compelling personal narratives at the cost of valuable context and perspective. Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePat BrownJul 23, 2019
It seems so invested in a rehabilitation of Brittany Kaiser’s image that the filmmakers’ own motives end up being its most interesting subject. Read full review
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