91
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenFrederick Wiseman is a portraitist of ideals, of the insidious inspirations and nightmares that enable and undermine them, and, implicitly, of the political waves that have yet to balance this duality of first-world life.
- 100Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfA film about the importance of cultural history and truth (two things deeply under siege these days), Wiseman’s epic Ex Libris might make you cry with happiness; it’s the good fight being fought. Movies aren’t usually a public benefit, much less an essential one. Here’s the exception.
- 100The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungNever talking down to his audience, he rather pulls them up to an intellectual level where other filmmakers fear to go.
- 100IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichThese portraits don't have a hint of didacticism or preachiness, but "Ex Libris" achieves a certain emotional velocity all the same.
- 100The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanEx Libris rolls out like a collection of short films.... It’s like watching Wiseman skip along through the stacks of all accumulated human knowledge.
- 80The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneGraceful and all-embracing.
- 80VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergThis is an enriching way to spend three-plus hours.
- 70Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallShot and edited with Wiseman’s customary poetry and precision, Ex Libris is structured as a series of forays from the Library’s Fifth Avenue heart to its orbiting satellites, and back again.
- 60CineVueJohn BleasdaleCineVueJohn BleasdaleIt's as if Wiseman has taken his cue from the old style librarians and has wanted to give a portrait of a community but without the inevitable noise that goes with it, issuing one long "shhhhhhhhh".