82
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangThe geopolitical landscape has changed dramatically in the last few months since this sleek, smartly assembled and almost indecently entertaining movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (where it won two audience awards), and as a result, it can feel timely and outdated, relevant and redundant, disturbing and escapist all at once.
- 80Time OutPhil de SemlyenTime OutPhil de SemlyenNavalny is a barely believable brew of activism, resistance, poisonings, death squads, exiles and homecomings. Most of all, it’s a story of courage in the face of ruthless repression and one of those all-too-rare geopolitical stories where the bad guys actually get some comeuppance.
- 80The GuardianAdrian HortonThe GuardianAdrian HortonIf you’re coming in with a blank slate, then Navalny is a feast of evermore unbelievable details and a window into a movement against a state of increasingly boldfaced, demeaning lies.
- 80Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganScreen DailyFionnuala HalliganThis gripping, muscular piece is markedly immediate - like its subject, who lives for the moment, in the constant shadow of his own death.
- 80SlashfilmBen PearsonSlashfilmBen PearsonAt a certain point, Navalny kicks into spy movie mode, detailing how that "Bulgarian nerd" utilizes data acquired from the dark web to pore over phone records and flight manifests to narrow down a possible list of suspects. It's riveting stuff.
- 80VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanThe film flashes back to the poisoning, and it could be the most sickening and calamitous suspense-thriller episode you ever saw.
- 80Film ThreatNorman GidneyFilm ThreatNorman GidneyRoher is profoundly lucky to have been around when Navalny’s harrowing story needed to be told, and so are we.
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichWhatever their respective agendas, Navalny finds subject and filmmaker alike bound together by the shared belief that authoritarian governments are as scared of their people as their people are of them, and the documentary is galvanized by the spectacle of Putin shitting his pants.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergThe Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergThis is an incredibly charismatic man with a finely honed sense of his public image, but Roher is also able to capture how prickly he is.