Trouble the Water
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: August 22, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
If possible, Roberts' movie-within-a-movie is even more amazing than it sounds. She captures a tale of courage, heroism and tragedy more thrilling than any Hollywood spectacle. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Essential, unique viewing. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A marvelous documentary that brings home the terror and heroism brought forth by the Katrina debacle. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Trouble the Water is so much better and truer and deeper and more illuminating than either of them ("Bowling for Columbine"/"Fahrenheit 9/11"). Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The documentary shows outrageous behavior, none more so than when they and many others are directed to a nearby Navy base for refuge. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
It's a damning indictment of a national disgrace, but it also reveals the incredible faith and resilience of people who have nothing to rely on but themselves. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Enraging and inspiring. It boasts the miraculous quality of finding a letter in a bottle and discovering that its authors are alive. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
A deeply moving story of resilience and redemption. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Lessin and Deal have made Trouble the Water a spellbinder you do not want to miss. Read full review
88
PremierePauline Pechin
A remarkable and disturbing look at the personal stories glossed over by the headlines. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Slowly builds power to devastating effect. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
You can't make this stuff up. You can, however, capture it on film for all time. Trouble the Water is ineradicably moving. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJim Ridley
The resilience of the movie's subjects--survivors of street crime and drugs and HIV--irradiates Trouble the Water like sunshine. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A stirring documentary. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
They have created an ingeniously fluid narrative structure that, when combined with Ms. Roberts’s visuals, news material and their own original 16-millimeter film footage, ebbs and flows like great drama. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
One of the most eloquent records we have of a tragedy that brought out some of the most impressively alive men and women in New Orleans. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The Roberts are unforgettable figures, and their insiders' perspective and ultimate survival and rebirth provide an exhilarating example of how wondrous things can emerge from the flood. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Trouble The Water is infuriating in its depiction of helpless Americans getting left behind, and uplifting in the way it shows the Roberts putting their lives together, but it's also frustrating, because it lacks some focus. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Engrossing documentary. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
The film works as well as it does thanks to Kimberly Roberts' magnetic screen presence. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Spike Lee's voluminous "When the Levees Broke" proved a thorough indictment, a compilation of tragic and appalling facts encyclopedically catalogued. By contrast, Trouble the Water (on Oscar's short-list in the best doc category) has a more personal focus and, although just as damning, manages to strike a more hopeful chord. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin Lowe
Kimberly's ground-zero home video of the storm is what really makes the film exceptional, although much of it is of such rough quality and execution that it struggles to hold up on the big screen. Read full review
70
Washington PostNeely Tucker
Weaker in its second half than its mesmerizing first, as the story moves away from the intensity of the storm to follow the Robertses in their efforts to resettle. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film is so immersed in Roberts's life that it becomes easy to think that most of what the camera sees is also from her perspective. It's actually too seamless. Read full review
60
VarietyRobert Koehler
Though tinged with the sheer gumption and personal resolve of amateur vidmaker and would-be rapper Kimberly Roberts, this is ultimately a minor doc contribution to the bulging library of Katrina-related films and TV reports. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal utilize the footage Kim and Scott Roberts had taken throughout the disaster, showing how residents suffered, survived and came together to help when official assistance let them down. Read full review
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