The Lovers and the Despot
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 23, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
TheWrapDave WhiteSep 22, 2016
Cannan and Adam approach the outlandish crime as a puzzlement, all but wondering aloud how two celebrities could be stolen from public life and turned into a dictator’s puppets. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounSep 19, 2016
The Lovers and the Despot is compelling as a Cold War-era thriller, but it also offers a small window on life in the higher echelons of power in North Korea at that time. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 16, 2016
Fascinating on personal, political and cinematic levels, the film resourcefully plumbs all sorts of resources, including secret tape recordings of Kim himself, but also omits certain aspects of the tale that would merely have added to its intrigue. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangJun 16, 2016
While a more thorough archival survey of Choi and Shin’s work together (pre- and post-abduction) would have allowed for a deeper perspective, this real-life romantic thriller/escape saga still boasts enough fascinating details and angles to qualify as essential stranger-than-fiction viewing. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerSep 29, 2016
It’s a fantastically bonkers story told excitedly in The Lovers and the Despot, a stranger-than-fiction yarn that would make a hell of an opera. Read full review
75
Washington PostPat PaduaSep 22, 2016
“Lovers” suggests that any film — even this one — can have the manipulative power of propaganda. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 12, 2016
A tale worthy of a hundred Cold War thrillers. Read full review
75
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 31, 2016
As both an utterly mad true story and as a document of the boundless reach of the cinema across borders and cultures and even ideologies, The Lovers and the Despot is wild, valuable viewing for all. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 22, 2016
Despite its flaws and will to kitsch, The Lovers and the Despot has enough enigmas and chills to merit a look, even if some of its spookier moments involve cinephilia rather than the usual weapons of mass destruction. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 22, 2016
A beyond belief documentary. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 22, 2016
You may harbor doubts as well, but the story on the whole appears to be true, and the integrity of the documentary suffers little, if at all, from its co-directors’ decision to illustrate some of the more extravagant aspects of the lovers’ journey with charmingly sleazy clips from commercial potboilers that Shin, who died in 2006, had made in South Korea. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlSep 21, 2016
The film is brisk and fascinating, ultimately moving, but also less rich than it might have been. Read full review
70
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyJan 31, 2016
The visual textures of The Lovers and the Despot, edited by Jim Hession — and the Kim audio tapes — make for vibrant cinema. Read full review
67
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonJan 31, 2016
The tale of Choi and Shin is a true stranger-than-fiction one, as good a piece of material as a filmmaker could help for. It’s just a shame that, for the most part, The Lovers And The Despot feels like it’s giving you the Cliff Notes version of the story. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 29, 2016
Directors Rob Cannan and Ross Adam have made a picture that’s technically rough-edged but absorbing. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithSep 22, 2016
It’s told in a woefully pedestrian way, with talking-head footage forming the bulk of this slow-to-develop film. Still, it’s a creepily fascinating tale. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 22, 2016
What they don’t quite make clear, and perhaps it is impossible to do so, is what really happened in this odd episode of international espionage epitomizing movie-mogul tyranny. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 20, 2016
The haphazard blending of fact and clips from disparate films unrelated to Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee's ordeal confuses an already intricate tale. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 23, 2016
A frustrating missed opportunity, The Lovers and the Despot takes a fascinating story about filmmaking, politics, kidnapping and propaganda and gives us almost no insight into the work of its two main characters, a director and his actress wife. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 22, 2016
When The Lovers and the Despot finally crawls to a close, you’re left with one thought above all others: This could make for a really great movie, some day. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 21, 2016
Unfortunately, this bland, incurious oral history focuses exclusively on what’s admittedly the most superficially fascinating chapter of their lives: the eight years they spent making movies together in North Korea, after Kim Jong-il had them kidnapped. Read full review
42
The Film StageDaniel SchindelJan 31, 2016
The most frustrating aspect of The Lovers and the Despot is its refusal to do more than simply recite its tale, ignoring the interesting concepts lurking within it. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 31, 2016
It’s one hell of a yarn, which makes The Lovers and the Despot’s strangely soporific style something of a disappointment. Read full review
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