They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
Netflix | Release Date: November 2, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 31, 2018
More narratively straightforward (but also masterfully edited in F for Fake style), the documentary takes its title from a Welles quote about the fickle hypocrisy of the movie business and about his other favorite subject: himself. And that quote couldn’t have been more spot-on for a man who was most appreciated most only when it was too late. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 2, 2018
It was beset by legal woes and held in French vaults and labs for almost 40 years. Both Neville’s film and “The Other Side of the Wind” are being released simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix. I would advise seeing Welles’s film first. It’s more rewarding and less confusing that way. Read full review
91
The PlaylistKimber MyersSep 1, 2018
There’s been no shortage of study on Welles, but They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead offers a new understanding of the elusive, cunning filmmaker with a verve the man himself would have admired. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 6, 2018
With this documentary, Morgan Neville has made a movie about Orson Welles that would have transfixed the great master himself. Read full review
85
TheWrapRobert AbeleAug 31, 2018
The prime takeaway is of an irascibly charming, wounded and forceful genius both having the time of his life and sensing the gathering dusk. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnAug 31, 2018
So much of Welles’ history has been relegated to scholarly texts that it’s a thrill to see this final chapter laid out with such clarity and charm. Read full review
80
Film Journal InternationalDaniel EaganNov 8, 2018
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead gives a rich, flavorful account of a self-destructive genius on one of his last creative benders. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenNov 1, 2018
Focusing on the last 15 years in the life of mercurial actor-director Orson Welles, the bulk of which was spent trying to complete his passion project, “The Other Side of the Wind,” the impeccably assembled production employs Neville’s virtuoso touch to provocative effect. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 1, 2018
Entertaining and informative as a contextualising accompaniment to Welles’s reconstructed experimental project The Other Side of the Wind...Neville’s film may reveal little that hardcore Wellesians don’t already know. But it offers a lively evocation of the great man’s brilliance, waywardness and pained relationship to Hollywood history. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 31, 2018
It's as if Neville, inspired by the scattershot commentary of the party guests in Wind, felt he'd been given permission to be a bit wild, even chaotic, with his documentary film style, an approach that proves both apt and a bit frustrating. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 31, 2018
It says more about the man behind it than any documentary to date, cut together with such a supreme understanding and care for its subject that director Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) seems half-justified in suggesting that his project may as well be the missing film. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 2, 2018
Genius, this movie believes, is real, whether it’s failed or successful. Read full review
75
ConsequenceBlake GobleOct 31, 2018
When Neville chronicles the failed work of Orson Welles, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead comes alive with newsreel tabloid verve. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 30, 2018
Morgan Neville understands Orson Welles's art to pivot on an ongoing quest to bring about self-destruction so as to contrive to transcend it. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonDec 10, 2018
With interviews, clips, commentary, and more, the documentary serves as a quick primer on Welles as well as the film. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 1, 2018
Neville was inspired by Josh Karp’s engrossing book “Orson Welles’s Last Movie,” which goes into greater detail than Neville can in 98 minutes. Karp also pays closer attention to Welles’s artistic process, which in the documentary can seem little more than pure chaos. Read full review
50
The Film StageStaff (Not Credited)Sep 15, 2018
It makes for a passable supplement, if not a worthy complement to Welles’ last effort. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 8, 2018
This tricksy, exasperating and strangely unenlightening film, with its pointless fictional narrator played by Alan Cumming, purports to tell the story of Orson Welles’s mysterious “lost” masterpiece, The Other Side of the Wind. But in jokily trying to imitate the jabbering chaos of this film’s production history, it fails to give a clear, informative account. Read full review
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