65
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanIt’s a highly entertaining movie that manages to pack in more or less every important thing you’d want to know about Tom Wolfe.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreThe film, inspired by a Michael Lewis (“Moneyball,” “The Big Short, “The Blind Side,””Liar’s Poker”) magazine article and relying much on Lewis’s take on the man, the writer and his self-created mythos, is a reminder of Wolfe’s once-giantic footprint in the culture.
- 75RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireRogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireIf there’s a note of reflexive nostalgia in the proceedings, that inevitably has to do not just with the man at the film’s center but with the era that produced him, a time when magazine and print journalism could take writers and make instant celebrities and hugely influential cultural figures out of them. That day is long gone, but Radical Wolfe makes a strong case that it’s well worth remembering.
- 67The PlaylistChris BarsantiThe PlaylistChris BarsantiUnlike its subject, Radical Wolfe would rather be liked than start something.
- 63Washington PostMark JenkinsWashington PostMark JenkinsTo judge from his film’s style, it also seems likely that Dewey just doesn’t have the patience for a subtle approach.
- 60Wall Street JournalKyle SmithWall Street JournalKyle SmithThough the film can’t capture Wolfe’s writing, it does a public service in passing along its subject’s wisdom.
- 60Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAs tributes go, the documentary is always lively. Archival clips zip by and nobody ever gets more than a sentence or two before the film cuts away, which means it never burrows in as often as you might want it to, considering the colorful, thick life on display.
- 50The New York TimesDevika GirishThe New York TimesDevika GirishRichard Dewey’s staid, by-the-book documentary can hardly match the flair with which Wolfe lived and wrote.