Zero Days
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 8, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
CineVueMatthew AndersonJan 10, 2017
A chilling expose of state-sponsored cyber warfare and the enemy within. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJul 20, 2016
Anything but dull, Gibney’s clarion call whipsaws along like a combo Jason Bourne/007 thriller minus all that running. Unnerving and likely to give viewers some bitter food for thought, Zero Days is Gibney’s most important work yet. Read full review
75
TheWrapSam AdamsJul 8, 2016
Because the Zero Days subjects who are best positioned to provide new information are also the least likely to talk, much of the movie is devoted to rehashing previously published reports, which Gibney does with both cogency and style. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireJul 8, 2016
Easily the most important film anyone has released this year, it is a documentary that deserves to be seen by every sentient citizen of this country – and indeed the world. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJul 7, 2016
It’s a detective story. It’s a spy thriller. It’s a cautionary tale. And it’s true. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 7, 2016
Zero Days has a similarly balanced outlook along with a critical political viewpoint that avoids hysteria and demagogy. Its strongest protest is against what Mr. Gibney sees as the dangers of excessive American secrecy. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteven WrightJul 7, 2016
Director Alex Gibney does this vital material a disservice, giving it an air of deflated pomposity. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJul 7, 2016
At the end the film turns into an infomercial for President Obama’s Iran deal, but Gibney delivers plenty to think about — and fear. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 7, 2016
You’ll want to see Zero Days — just not when you’re counting on a good night’s sleep a few hours later. Alex Gibney’s documentary about cyberwarfare is many things, none of them lulling: a thriller, a detective procedural, a startling chronicle of science fiction transformed into fact, and an urgent plea for public discussion of a new way of waging war that could wreak havoc on a scale akin to that of nuclear weapons. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 7, 2016
Gibney’s film cuts across subjects and genres with its own fluid, quicksilver intelligence. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 7, 2016
The film’s thoroughness is a virtue or a problem, depending on one’s point of view. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJoey NolfiJul 7, 2016
A sense of duty and morals doesn’t render Gibney infallible as a storyteller, however, as even passion for justice sometimes breeds overindulgence when you’re drunk with power and a camera. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJul 7, 2016
There’s one NSA staffer in particular — seen in shadow, her voice altered — who’s the real star of Zero Days. Her reveal is at once solid journalism and dramatic tour de force. It’s a challenge Gibney meets with ease. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 7, 2016
Few will emerge from its story of intelligence tradecraft and egregious lapses in oversight without feeling seriously freaked out. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 7, 2016
But as with every other film in his fast-growing canon, Gibney wields his authoritative research and storytelling skills like a scalpel, getting at a subject we aren’t talking about with blunt facts and informed, cautionary speculation. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJul 6, 2016
The film does the job; it holds your attention. Overall, though, this is a classic “Say, why not read a book instead?” situation. Read full review
91
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 24, 2016
What Zero Days lacks in subtlety and formal innovation, however, it compensates for in breadth and lucidity. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 24, 2016
Zero Days is an intriguing, disturbing watch. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMay 24, 2016
Because it wants to be a primer on a serious subject, an exciting cinematic exposé and an argument for more openness and some kind of regulatory framework, the necessities of these different strands end up getting in each other’s way. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 24, 2016
His new film Zero Days may ostensibly be an investigation of the 2010 malware worm known as Stuxnet, but over its swift-moving 116-minute runtime, Gibney does a much broader and more important job: relating the rather airless, abstract concepts of cyber-terrorism and internet espionage to their real-world consequences. Read full review
70
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 24, 2016
While the urgency of the message emerges powerfully, the details are often hard to absorb, as Gibney skips from political information to technical specs. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 24, 2016
Gibney’s problem here, in a way, is his main point: the very lack of transparency about these missions, which operate in ill-defined spheres of international law, obstructs informed public discussion. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 24, 2016
Clear, urgent and positively terrifying at times. Read full review
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