Critic Reviews

• Dave Calhoun, Time Out

  You can't help but feel that director Astra Taylor fails at her own challenge of making an academic subject come truly alive as cinema.

• Rob Nelson, Variety

  Taylor's stimulating film, enlivened by creative location shooting, will surely find an appreciative audience among highbrow cinephiles.

• Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

  Director-writer Astra Taylor wisely avoids turning this talk fest into a talking heads fest by filming these effusive intellectuals in a variety of visually diverting, real-world environments.

• J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

  There's plenty of food for thought here, though the movie is more a buffet than a meal.

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  To [director Astra] Taylor's credit it's as inviting and accessible as a smart conversation with fascinating friends.

• Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

  Illuminating, even moving.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  An unusual and compelling documentary featuring eight thinkers musing on philosophical matters as they walk in creative places.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  For those interested in seeing philosophers on the screen, this engaging movie offers the opportunity to see eight of them walking the streets.

• Patrick Peters, Empire Magazine

  The ones that work, Cornel West and Peter Singer for example, are intriguing and compelling but they don't all hang together so effortlessly.

• Jon Fortgang, Film4

  A fascinating introduction to the big issues in modern philosophy, presented with a pleasantly light touch.

• Kevin Maher, Times [UK]

  Never dull, but it will make your head hurt.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Each of the half-dozen or so thinkers gets around 20 minutes to maunder on - simultaneously not long enough and far too long. Frustratingly, no subject is investigated in depth, and the glibness is dull.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  This is an addictive and stimulating experience all round.

• Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

  Eccentric but always accessible, Taylor's boff-doc avoids the idiosyncrasy that her work has previously exhibited. In bringing philosophy into the real world, Examined Life is at once illuminating and intellectually stimulating.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  A film that can haunt you for the rest of your life.

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  Although a sporadically stimulating and thoroughly challenging exercise, Examined Life too often feels like a forum for brainy big-thinkers' annoying penchant for being as inscrutable as possible.

• Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine

  Yes, examining philosophy for the greater effect it can have is admiral but it seems to get lost as the film jumps from one personality to another.

• Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix

  She gives eight thinkers 10 minutes each to unload on tough topics like the meaning of life and right and wrong and comes up mostly with a lot of platitudes about treating other people nice.

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  Watching "Examined Life" is sort of like sitting on a plane next to a total stranger who insists on making conversation. Except this is that one time out of 100 when the stranger turns out to be a completely fascinating person.

Read all 19 critic reviews