The Work
| Release Date: October 20, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 26, 2017
There’s also such a profound sense of support among the participants, albeit of the tough-love variety, that the movie offers a strange kind of hope. Read full review
100
Total FilmMatt GlasbySep 6, 2017
What emerges is as riveting as it is revelatory. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 30, 2017
When the participants convulse and cry, the film’s empathetic connection is so direct and so strong, audiences may be driven to weep as well. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenMar 16, 2017
Putting the viewer into a men’s circle like no other, The Work is a remarkable piece of reportage. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 16, 2017
An emotionally riveting documentary that may very well be the most powerful group therapy ever caught on camera. Read full review
90
Village VoiceSiddhant AdlakhaMar 8, 2018
What’s terrifying about The Work is that this introspection is merely the first step. It’s a snapshot, not the full picture of men becoming more in tune with themselves and ceasing to filter all emotional processes through outward aggression. What’s comforting about The Work, then, is seeing society’s forgotten and discarded beginning this journey. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 23, 2017
In its visceral purity, Jairus McLeary's film drags male toxicity up into the light, offering it as a cure for itself. Read full review
80
CineVueMatthew AndersonSep 10, 2017
The Work is a rousing, arresting and ultimately cathartic call-to-arms for the power and value of rehabilitation. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 8, 2017
Stylistically, co-directors McLeary and Aldous were given complete access to the retreat and wield their cameras like voyeuristic lanterns in a tremendously dark place. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comVikram MurthiOct 26, 2017
The Work asserts that the collapse of emotional barriers feels like an exorcism, and that life’s true labor involves facing and contending with the blues inside us all. Prison blues doesn’t only belong to actual prisoners. Read full review
75
TheWrapRobert AbeleOct 25, 2017
Though The Work leaves a lot unanswered about this unusual program (run by the Inside Circle Foundation), and the characters who participate in it, it’s an often tense and exhilarating glimpse into a moment in time that lets men prioritize honesty and tears over superficial displays of strength. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 26, 2017
Opening an aperture into a process so ego-stripping that it feels unseemly to witness, The Work is enlightening yet also punishing. Read full review
60
The GuardianLeslie FelperinSep 10, 2017
The dry, strictly observational shooting style means the doc stays in the moment and rarely ventures out of the room where the programme unfolds, adding immediacy. Read full review
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