To Be Takei
Starz Digital Media | Release Date: August 22, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 28, 2014
To Be Takei is a celebration of a man of great resilience, infectious humor, a voracious appetite for the richness of the human experience, and the best laugh in the history of laughing. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 22, 2014
William Shatner, it must be said, comes off as an insufferable, pompous jerk. Maybe he's jealous. After all, at age 75, Takei is an openly gay Asian American with an overwhelming social media fan base, making him the one who has really gone where no man has gone before. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 21, 2014
Indeed, the doc works best as a relationship study, filled with endearing moments of intimate bickering. Takei is a self-admitted ham but a playful one, projecting his confidence in increasingly meaningful directions. Read full review
80
VarietyRonnie ScheibAug 19, 2014
A unique blend of camp and conviction, To Be Takei deftly showcases George Takei’s eclectic personality and wildly disparate achievements. Read full review
75
The PlaylistDrew TaylorAug 19, 2014
In the new documentary To Be Takei, it becomes clear that Takei is a man who defies expectations and subverts stereotypes at virtually every turn. It’s just a shame the movie wasn’t as progressive as its subject. Read full review
74
Film.comJames RocchiAug 26, 2014
This portrait of the actor winds up being a parable about all of us. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 22, 2014
The kind of documentary that’s smart enough to step back and let its charming subject take over. It won’t break new ground, but it’s not lazy or generic. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinAug 21, 2014
In all, writer-director Jennifer M. Kroot effectively jams in quite a lot about the super-busy Takei. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicPenny WalkerAug 21, 2014
The film is choppy in parts, but it is George Takei's approachability, his constant big laughter, even his singing (he performs "Don't Fence Me In" after explaining how the internment camps made the lyrics poignant to him) that tie it together. Read full review
70
Village VoiceSherilyn ConnellyAug 19, 2014
To Be Takei is never less than joyful — much like the man himself. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 20, 2014
Takei is a natural storyteller who lends an enjoyable flow to the movie’s uncomplicated proceedings. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineClayton DillardAug 18, 2014
Jennifer M. Kroot plays things a bit too straight and safe by giving into basic emotional and thematic possibilities of each period in Takei's prolific early life and subsequent Hollywood career. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 21, 2014
Director Jennifer Kroot’s good-natured biography is so appealing that even non-Trekkies may be convinced we needed a full-length documentary about the man who was Sulu. Read full review
60
The DissolveChris KlimekAug 19, 2014
He seems like one of the least neurotic men on the planet, and yet how could that describe someone who lived with a heavy secret for 68 years? That’s the question Kroot’s film circles without ever managing completely to ask, much less fully answer. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 19, 2014
To Be Takei follows multiple threads without pulling any one of them satisfyingly into focus, making it amusing and even poignant, though not quite the window into its subject's life that it might have been with a more penetrating observer. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubVadim RizovAug 20, 2014
The technical, workmanlike production is made more irritating than necessary by Michael Hearst’s score, whose grating circus-comes-to-town sprightliness is routinely slathered over mundane footage. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldAug 21, 2014
[Ms. Kroot's] banalizing documentary is self-defeating as it tags along with Mr. Takei and his wonky husband, Brad, on their busy daily schedule. Read full review
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