The Hunting Ground
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: February 27, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattFeb 25, 2015
Heartbreaking, infuriating, and unmissable. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 1, 2015
This is a story to make blood boil and change demanded, so future waves of incoming freshmen — even that term is male-centric — won't have their dreams ruined. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinFeb 26, 2015
A shocking but ultimately galvanizing work of reportage that meets the same high standard of their previous collaboration, The Invisible War. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 12, 2015
Director Kirby Dick has gone from examining sexual assaults in the military in 2012's "The Invisible War" to investigating rapes on college campuses. His is an impassioned and well-researched film that will incite outrage. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 12, 2015
The Hunting Ground does a fine and fierce job of portraying campus sexual assault as a national disease. It never dares to suggest that it’s a symptom. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 27, 2015
It is an infuriating reality that The Hunting Ground exposes. I was rattled watching it, finding it hard to catch my breath and harder still to imagine how many people are in positions of power who have heard these stories so many times and turned their backs on victims. Read full review
85
TheWrapInkoo KangFeb 26, 2015
A timely, thorough and truly inspiring documentary about the financial and marketing imperatives that lead academic institutions to deny their students safety and justice. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 26, 2015
The Hunting Ground is at its best when it stops dwelling on variations of the problem and points toward a solution. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerFeb 25, 2015
It’s a testament to the wealth of this material that the point is a passing one — just one incidence of institutional hypocrisy among many. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 16, 2015
So much of "The Hunting Ground" describes the behavior of college students at their worst. Watching Pino and Clark find some measure of peace and healing while offering the same to others shows it at its best. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 26, 2015
Fear of retaliation often keeps faculty and administration from speaking up for students or talking at all, and six university presidents declined to be interviewed here. If it does nothing else, The Hunting Ground should make that kind of evasion more difficult in the future. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 26, 2015
The surprise is that, given the number of female college presidents, professors, and students, victims are still so reliably blamed, punishments so reliably weak, and serial offenders (responsible for 91 percent of all sexual assaults) so reliably undisturbed. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 26, 2015
The stories are horrifying, but essential to hear. Kirby Dick’s important documentary puts a personal face to the staggering numbers. Read full review
80
Time OutTomris LafflyFeb 23, 2015
The Hunting Ground still shocks and awakens its audience in all the right ways, bringing the recent headlines of a Columbia University rape survivor carrying her mattress around into irrefutably urgent, sharp focus. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 1, 2015
This is an emotionally devastating piece of advocacy journalism, as it should be. It should also be mandatory viewing for both college-age teens and their parents. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelApr 3, 2015
That one sentiment repeats throughout: No matter how horrible the assaults, the schools' treatment of the women afterward was worse. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 2, 2015
One thing nearly all the anecdotes in The Hunting Ground have in common is their resolution: A lack of justice. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsMar 20, 2015
[Kirby Dick's] new documentary enrages, yet makes its case in an even-tempered manner. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 19, 2015
From its first moments, the new documentary The Hunting Ground instills a sense of dread that is very, very tough to shake. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 12, 2015
The Hunting Ground’s film’s biggest journalistic “get” is the first on-camera interview with Erica Kinsman, the Florida State student who accused star quarterback Jameis Winston of drugging and raping her. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 12, 2015
With its unflinching portrayal of cynical school officials and their corrupt symbiosis with the sports teams and Greek systems to which they’re beholden, The Hunting Ground is, at its most basic, a damning indictment of entitlement and impunity. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 26, 2015
As the cases mount and institutional reps succeed best by playing dumb, The Hunting Ground becomes a energizing call to action, a potent provocation that’s been too long coming. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartFeb 25, 2015
A few university officials talk on camera, but not many do, and it will be fascinating to watch the fallout from this scathing indictment of a system that, the movie claims, has all but encouraged sexual predators to do their worst. Read full review
70
VarietyBen KenigsbergFeb 26, 2015
This sort of doc is a legal minefield, but it never seems to sacrifice urgency or cogency, although like Dick’s previous films, it may irk those who prefer a wonkier, less button-pushing approach. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 26, 2015
What cuts through the filmmaking clutter are the young women and men who share their accounts of abuse by both their attackers and their schools. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayFeb 21, 2015
Kirby Dick's films don't go far enough in explaining how a culture of rape can pervade in vastly different institutions, but they're ruthless about holding them accountable. Read full review
60
The DissolveScott TobiasFeb 25, 2015
If the purpose of The Hunting Ground is to raise awareness and call viewers to action, then mission accomplished. But the tactics used are often graceless and propagandistic, and take away from the moving testimonials and the on-the-ground organization at the film’s core. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMichael NordineFeb 24, 2015
A film about individuals who refuse to be silenced could stand to take a few more chances itself. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleThomas LeeMar 13, 2015
As a call to action, The Hunting Ground truly goes to bat for rape survivors. As a documentary, the movie as a whole is much lesser than its individual parts. Read full review
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