Tower
Kino Lorber | Release Date: October 12, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
92
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 3, 2016
Keith Maitland’s powerful and emotional documentary Tower — easily one of the best films of the year — takes a novel approach for a nonfiction film: Animation. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 3, 2016
Keith Maitland’s Tower is a stunningly powerful and gripping documentary. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 19, 2016
Director Keith Maitland’s film is one of the finest documentaries ever made, and it’s also one of the most unusual. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 14, 2016
I love when non-fiction filmmakers stretch the form and attempt, with as much honesty as they can muster, to put us in the middle of the events they describe. They give us stunning hybrids like "Waltz With Bashir," "Persepolis," and, now, Tower. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriOct 13, 2016
Through the recollections of witnesses and victims, the film simultaneously builds a present-tense narrative while portraying the terrifying resilience of memory and trauma. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 11, 2016
Using a limited frame, Mr. Maitland does his own commemorating, inherently raising questions about terror, the nature of heroism and what it means to really survive. He also does something even more necessary: He turns names on a plaque into people. Read full review
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 11, 2016
The animation, by Craig Staggs, has a notable imaginative specificity, and the meticulously complex interweaving of styles turns the film into a horrifying true-crime thriller that’s enriched by a rare depth of inner experience. Read full review
100
TheWrapRobert AbeleOct 11, 2016
Tower is art, first and foremost, a piece about adrenaline, bravery, grief and memory that stands as one of the year’s crowning achievements in emotional, illuminative storytelling. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKevin P. SullivanOct 12, 2016
Tower allies itself with the heroes on the ground and the immeasurable courage they displayed, risking everything for the sake of strangers. That’s a story worth telling, one worth remembering, and what makes Tower a must-see. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 11, 2016
Maitland sticks close to the ground, providing a harrowing moment-to-moment account that foregrounds multiple acts of genuine heroism. The result comes as close to being a feel-good movie about senseless violence as anyone is likely to get. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayOct 13, 2016
Maitland’s experimental approach to a tricky subject leaves viewers with a deeper understanding of a terrible moment in American history. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeOct 11, 2016
As the melee comes to feel like it may never end, the film executes a masterful narrative shift that will produce instant lumps in many viewers' throats. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangOct 11, 2016
A gripping dramatic reconstruction, a tribute to the heroes and the fallen, and inevitably an expression of nostalgia for the days when a mass shooting still had the power to shock, Keith Maitland’s film weaves rotoscopic animation, archival footage and present-day interviews into a uniquely cinematic memorial. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 27, 2016
The interweaving of animation and nonanimated footage gives the picture a kind of surreal quality that befits the sense of the survivors of how unreal the event seemed to them. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 13, 2016
Tower is explanatory journalism and history, but also personally expressive, and the two impulses never cancel each other out. Read full review
83
ConsequenceDan CaffreyOct 11, 2016
This unique blend of docudrama, action movie, and cartoon immerses the viewer in a way that wouldn’t be possible in a more traditional film. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkOct 11, 2016
Tower offers a chilling, first-hand account of those tremendously haunting days that live in infamy within our collective conscious: days that begin like any other until the unimaginable occurs. Read full review
80
CineVueMaximilian Von ThunFeb 2, 2017
Stylistically it is an indisputable triumph. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredDavid JamesOct 13, 2016
Propulsive, beautiful and tense as hell, Tower is superior documentary filmmaking. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Ian BaileyOct 13, 2016
Animation seems an odd means of addressing such a grim tragedy, but it gives Maitland the creative freedom to effectively tell a suspenseful, harrowing and moving story. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnOct 11, 2016
Though its final act lacks the sharp focus of the moments leading up to it, Tower is a fascinating blend of suspense and journalistic inquiry. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 9, 2016
Broadly, filmmaker Keith Maitland's treatment of the UT Tower shooting is both taut and humane. Read full review
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