Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: June 7, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 6, 2013
This pull-no-punches portrait shocks and amuses with equal frequency. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 27, 2013
Downey found a way to channel his working-class audience’s anger against liberal shibboleths and not incidentally take down both his dad and his surrogate dad — Teddy ­Kennedy. It’s a ­riveting Oedipal tragedy. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasJun 10, 2013
An entertaining, affectionate documentary created by three self-professed fanboys, which proves as nostalgic for the host himself as for a bygone broadcast era, before the reality-TV explosion allowed the inmates to fully take over the asylum. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJun 6, 2013
This fascinating show-business documentary brings its subject to life, warts and all, in a way that would no doubt have thoroughly pleased him. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 4, 2013
The film is like his life: scabrous, upsetting, kind of moving, funny as hell, alive with hints of how we've become what we are. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJun 6, 2013
This material cries out for big-budget treatment by a real master like Paul Thomas Anderson or Martin Scorsese. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 6, 2013
Watching a movie about the late trash-TV pioneer turns out to be fascinating, even when his story is told as messily as it is here. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJun 6, 2013
Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie is as fair a portrayal the weak-chinned warrior will get — and fairer than he deserves. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James AdamsAug 29, 2013
Évocateur is never less than watchable. At the same time, you have to wonder who’s going to watch it. In an era when fame seems measured in increments even shorter than Warhol’s 15 minutes, a 91-minute documentary about a bug-eyed, chain-smoking sociopath who soared high and fell fast so long ago smacks of folly and misdirected energy, like trying to make a biography out of a footnote. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 6, 2013
As a look at how we got from there to here, “Evocateur” is one for the time capsule. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 4, 2013
The Mouth’s dubious legacy and his many off-camera complications are examined with a coarse affection of which he himself would surely approve. Read full review
50
The PlaylistGabe ToroJun 6, 2013
Directors Kramer, Miller and Newberger prefer embellishment, allowing personal stories about Downey to fuel animated re-enactments that trivialize rather than penetrate. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergJun 5, 2013
Ironically for a movie about the ratings value of shock, Évocateur suffers from its own lack of red meat. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyJun 4, 2013
Inflammatory talk-show host Morton Downey Jr. sparked, delighted, and quickly faded like a firecracker--not unlike the erratic, quick-fire presentation of his persona in this documentary. Read full review
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