The Rachel Divide
Netflix | Release Date: April 27, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
VarietyNick SchagerApr 24, 2018
The portrait it paints is sure to confound and infuriate in equal measure. Far from simply a snapshot of a discussion about race, Brownson’s documentary is a riveting account of self-sabotage, misplaced priorities, and obstinacy run amok. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenApr 24, 2018
The result is a riveting portrait, one that doesn't quite dispel what's maddening about Dolezal. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 1, 2018
If you’ve made up your mind about her, it’s hard to see this intriguing documentary changing that made up mind. The movie turned my head, here and there. But the questions about her honesty linger, along with the notoriety. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyApr 25, 2018
The Rachel Divide is a fascinating, comprehensive and well-crafted documentary. Read full review
75
IndieWireKate ErblandApr 25, 2018
How you view her and her lies is meant to say something about you. What it says about Dolezal is left more open to interpretation, as Brownson spends so much time close to her subject that it’s nearly impossible for the filmmaker and her work to not humanize her. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayApr 26, 2018
The Rachel Divide never quite cracks Dolezal's facade (if it even is a facade). But Brownson does move beyond the "think-piece" take on a real person — while also questioning whether she should. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 30, 2018
Early in The Rachel Divide, a commentator describes Dolezal as a Rorschach blot, and the movie is one, too. Some people think it’s a hatchet job, others that it gives its subject’s commitment to social justice too much credence. I found it pretty much down the middle. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergApr 26, 2018
Basic sympathy is where the usefulness of The Rachel Divide ends. Ms. Brownson hasn’t figured out how to construct a movie around a figure who essentially owes her fame to the obfuscation of her past. Anything Ms. Dolezal says has to be taken with such a large grain of salt that it’s not clear why it’s worth listening. Read full review
42
The PlaylistValerie ComplexApr 27, 2018
Brownson’s misguided and desperate attempts to humanize Dolezal only expose how deeply selfish and self-absorbed this woman is. There is something sick, twisted and insulting about America’s fixation with Rachel Dolezal and the way her lies have given her a platform, albeit a negative one, that most Black people don’t have. Read full review
20
TheWrapDan CallahanApr 24, 2018
Dolezal desperately tries to align herself with absurd terms like “trans racial” in order to try to find some way of making her way of life acceptable, but she always comes up short, and it is impossible to have any sympathy for her because she is so transparently a manipulator and a guilt-tripper. Read full review
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