The Apollo
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Nov 6, 2019
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5

Critic Reviews

  1. Reason.com
    Reviewed by: Glenn Garvin
    Nov 3, 2019
    80
    The audience, tentatively, clapped, and Fitzgerald's dancing career was over. Forty million records later, it seems the Apollo audience got it right.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    Apr 25, 2019
    80
    A splendid tribute ... The Apollo goes a long way to ensuring that the memories created in this one-of-a-kind space will be neither fleeting nor forgotten.
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    Apr 25, 2019
    80
    On Amateur Night, the excitement was in knowing that you could see just about anything (including an act that might change the world). And that’s the excitement of watching “The Apollo.” The movie, through its addictive and exhaustively researched film and video clips, salutes a shocking range of genius.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Chuck Arnold
    Apr 25, 2019
    80
    While it was a safe place for black artists, “The Apollo” shows just how intimidating that stage could be.
  6. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Eric Kohn
    Apr 25, 2019
    75
    It’s a worthy salute to the theater’s role in sustaining African American performance art through periods of great turmoil, and provides a conduit for exploring how a beacon for black achievement functions from the inside out. Having said that, “The Apollo” doesn’t work overtime to ask the most probing questions. It’s hard not to watch the movie without considering the issues it glosses over that might have given this absorbing chronicle more of an investigative flair.