The Unknown Known
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: April 2, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 1, 2014
The film is a cat-and-mouse game in which each player thinks he’s the cat, making it both thrilling and disconcerting to watch. It is also a nature documentary about behavior at the very top of the imperial food chain and a detective story about the search for a mystery that is hidden in plain sight. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireApr 4, 2014
Amounts to a valuable if tremendously damning commentary on our current political culture. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyApr 3, 2014
“The Fog of War” (2003), about McNamara, won Morris a best documentary feature Oscar. The Unknown Known takes its title from a favorite phrase of Rumsfeld. It also accurately describes its subject, whose smiling inscrutability makes him consistently fascinating and often maddening. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 9, 2014
The Unknown Known is a worthy addition to Morris’s body of work, an epic search that demonstrates the limits of language, the ease of sidestepping truth. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 3, 2014
This film, which might have been called "The Fog of Words," isn't haunting, but dismaying. Mr. Rumsfeld is, as always, articulate, energetic and self-confident. Yet his words suggest a paradox — a restless mind with no discernible gift for self-reflection. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 3, 2014
Intoxicating, and at times maddening, to watch. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 2, 2014
It's hard to believe a story this serious can be told in such an involving way, but that is one of this expert documentarian's greatest gifts. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasApr 2, 2014
The fact that Morris applies the same basic methodology to The Unknown Known that he did to the The Fog Of War makes the contrast between the two men meaningful, and says something profound about Rumsfeld, too. Read full review
80
EmpireAngie ErrigoMar 17, 2014
Dedicated to Morris’ champion, Roger Ebert, who would be proud, this is a provocative, revelatory and disturbing film. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasSep 17, 2013
Ranging over familiar material, but made vivid by Morris’ fecund associations and invigorating stylistic flourishes. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesBill StametsApr 17, 2014
Focusing on Rumsfeld’s 2001-06 stint at the Pentagon, Morris scrutinizes his rhetoric and rationale for attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. Tactics and costs take a back seat to semantics. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 17, 2014
It's still worth seeing. This ambitious and powerful sphinx, a major force in a particular chunk of recent history, may not give away much. Watching and listening to how he doesn't give it away — that's the known known here. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerApr 10, 2014
A fascinating and frustrating film. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanApr 3, 2014
He’s a fox who’s used to being hounded by journalists, and as such he’s a very elusive subject for a documentary – even one by a filmmaker who’s renowned for getting his subjects to talk. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 3, 2014
To extend the boxing analogy, it's as if Morris, after getting pummeled for 12 rounds, just taps Rumsfeld with his finger - and scores a knockout. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 17, 2013
Over the course of 106 minutes, Rumsfeld's rambling assertions grow exhausting, particularly because Morris never manages to direct them toward a larger argument. Read full review
72
Film.comJake ColeSep 17, 2013
The Fog of War is the superior film, but The Unknown Known is more unsettling. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 3, 2014
Donald Rumsfeld, then, is almost the perfect foil or adversary to Morris, and part of the absurd magic of Morris’ extended interviews with Rumsfeld is that they almost never feel adversarial. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 4, 2014
Although the movie goes way back into Rumsfeld’s career, it is the Iraq section that is the most noteworthy – and disappointing. Morris elicits virtually nothing revelatory from Rumsfeld. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 2, 2014
To take the playfully convoluted, semi-nonsensical aggression of Rumsfeld's language and make it the whole point of a movie is to fall into the trap of mistaking the spin for the story. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloDec 11, 2013
Tackling another secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, in The Unknown Known, Morris has finally met his match. The film is illuminating only in its utter lack of illumination — for looking deep into the eyes of someone incapable of letting his guard down and finding, predictably, nothing whatsoever. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 3, 2014
Seemingly unable to engage in self-reflection, let alone self-criticism, Rumsfeld is given virtually full rein to control the narrative by Morris, who is far more interested in letting the audience dwell inside his subject’s strangely attenuated moral imagination, rather than challenge it. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithApr 2, 2014
Morris is likely to disappoint liberals in The Unknown Known by failing to take down an apparently weak target. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJonathan KieferApr 1, 2014
Rumsfeld's impenetrability makes him fascinating, but only to a point. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 26, 2014
Morris's new subject looks relaxed and comfortable as ever lobbing out the same old evasions. He probably loves the attention from the Oscar-winning director. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniApr 4, 2014
It's hard to know whom to blame for this futile exercise: Morris or Rumsfeld. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneMar 31, 2014
Viewers' tolerance for Errol Morris's apparent sheepishness will hinge on their prior appreciation of the filmmaker's investigative acumen. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 17, 2013
An unsuccessful attempt to get inside the head, under the skin or through the looking glass of Bush administration Secretary of Defense and Iraq War proponent Donald Rumsfeld. Read full review
50
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 17, 2013
From a procedural perspective, the film is an insightful look into the life of a Secretary Of Defense, but as an exploration into how the war in Iraq was allowed to happen, it’s much, much less satisfying Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 17, 2013
Morris gives it the old college try, but Rumsfeld is too smooth an operator to let anything slip. Read full review
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