58
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The PlaylistLena WilsonThe PlaylistLena WilsonThe film is accessible, engrossing, urgent, and horrifying.
- 90Film ThreatRay LoboFilm ThreatRay LoboAfter watching the documentary, I hope that as critiques of the male gaze become more and more mainstream, audiences will see through the many cliches and understand the ideology objectifying women in cinema. And as they gaze back, I hope we all realize that they have complex stories to tell.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawBrainwashed is a bracing blast of critical rigour, taking a clear, cool look at the unexamined assumptions behind what we see on the screen.
- 70SlashfilmEthan AndertonSlashfilmEthan Anderton"Brainwashed" isn't so much of a shocking revelation as it is an eye-opening wake-up call to be more thoughtful about how women are depicted in film and how that translates into our everyday lives.
- 70Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganBrainwashed doesn’t deliver the opposing views you might like to see aired in a film like this - it’s not a debate for her, even though some film professionals still think it is - and Menkes shows possibly too many clips from her own films (as illustrations of the right sort of take), particularly as this lucid documentary draws to a close. Yet still it’s vigorous, often brash, and full of information.
- 67The Film StageDavid KatzThe Film StageDavid KatzCriticism can be poetry, but in Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power it is definitely prose, reserving the expressiveness for her own oeuvre.
- 67IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandMenkes will often admit that many examples might be the result of unconscious choices — a particularly useful and astute notation when dealing with films directed by women, plenty of which contribute to the same gendered way of shooting — but rarely engages with the possibility of a different intent by the filmmakers whose work she is unpacking.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinClearly made with the best of didactic intentions, and especially affecting when paying tribute to “original gangster” film theorist Laura Mulvey, interviewed all too briefly here, the film is founded on a simplistic, poorly argued thesis that is way out to sea, many waves of feminist film theory behind from what’s going on these days in academic circles and feminist discourse.
- 40The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaThe New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaLimited to a mere pointing out of which kinds of images are empowering to women and which aren’t, the documentary ultimately does a disservice to the art form, feminist or otherwise.
- 35Paste MagazinePaste MagazineThe most galling, offensive thing about Brainwashed is how poorly it demonstrates a point that should have been so very easy to prove.