76
Metascore
49 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperCertain events are rearranged from the factual timelines, and yes, The Trial of the Chicago 7 exercises poetic license. This is not a documentary; it’s a dramatization of events that resonates with great power while containing essential truths, and it’s one of the best movies of the year.
- 90Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzThe Trial of the Chicago 7 is something unexpected, fun. Sorkin trusts his instincts. Maybe real life has made it so that nothing seems over the top anymore. Whatever the case, it makes the film something else, too: timely.
- 88USA TodayBrian TruittUSA TodayBrian TruittThe filmmaker crafts an entertaining, immersive and ultimately optimistic spectacle that never forgets, especially at its ending, that humanity should always trump the system.
- 75IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnThe Trial of the Chicago 7 is exactly as advertised — a giant, giddy burst of earnest theatricality, loaded with a formidable ensemble that chews on every inch of the scenery, that overall makes a passionate case for the resilience of its formula more than using it as an excuse.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSorkin’s writing may be better served by a director who can bring a new set of perspectives and dynamics to the work, rather than simply presenting them head-on. Yet it works anyway. The actors win on appeal. And it’s always worth revisiting this particular chapter of Chicago unrest and injustice, because that chapter, tragically, is always up for another rewrite.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattChicago 7 frames the past not just as entertaining prologue but a living document; one we ignore at our own peril.
- 75SlashfilmChris EvangelistaSlashfilmChris EvangelistaFrom a movie-making perspective, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is sturdy but not particularly revelatory. But as a delivery system for great performers rattling off great dialogue, it’s almost unbeatable.
- 67The PlaylistRobert DanielsThe PlaylistRobert DanielsWhile many will draw parallels between scenes involving civil unrest to the events of 2020, the philosophical differences between Hayden and Abbie — cultural versus electoral revolution, respectively — ring closely to the debates raging within progressive politics today, and actually prove more interesting.
- 63Slant MagazineChris BarsantiSlant MagazineChris BarsantiIt pulses with relevancy in a time when debates over authoritarianism, protests, and the necessity of radicalism are convulsing America.
- 40The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawHe [Sorkin] can also become fantastically ponderous, bloated with finger-waggingly self-important liberal patriotism. Sadly, that is the tone with this exasperatingly dull, dramatically inert and faintly misjudged re-creation of the “Chicago Seven” trial in the US, which Sorkin has written and directed.