Critic Reviews

• Marta Barber, Miami Herald

  What the film does well is to make us part of the problem: After all we demand the lowest prices in everything we buy and that probably means it was made in China.

• Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  Canadian fine art photographer Edward Burtynsky shoots the recycling dumps, superfactories, vast quarries and shipyards, capturing visual beauty in the ecological devastation.

• Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

  Feels constrained and rather dutiful, no matter how passionate these people are about what they're observing.

• Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times

  Burtynsky calls for "a whole new way of thinking" about the world's economy and ecology, though he never says what's wrong with the old way.

• J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

  The movie works best traveling from the eye straight to the conscience.

• Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle

  Again and again, Baichwal tapers passages of her film toward resolution in the form of a finished picture by Burtynsky, telescoping her vision and his.

• Marty Mapes, Movie Habit

  Marvel at the sheer size of human industry (or is that human folly?)

• Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

  There is nothing wrong with Baichwal's camerawork, with a fascinating opening eight-minute shot of it roaming across a Chinese factory floor, particularly stunning - but everything lacks depth.

• Jeffrey Chen, Window to the Movies

  Burtynsky's awe-inspiring work ultimately speaks for itself.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  Each of Burtynsky's subjects is impressive in its scale, but terrifying in its ecological impact.

• Kam Williams, NewsBlaze

  A timely meditation on one country's carbon footprints which subtly suggests we all pause to consider redefining the meaning of civilization.

• Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

  A film in search of a subject.

• Marc Mohan, Oregonian

  Burtynsky avoids any political content to his work, but it's hard not to feel anxious and sad at the spectacle of the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the world's most populous nation.

• Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle

  My first question: What kind of nefarious events had to occur so that I could purchase the computer with which I write this review?

• Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion

  Like Burtynsky's pictures, captures images that are at once awesome, humbling, and rather terrifying.

• Prairie Miller, WBAI Web Radio

  There's a huge difference between conveying the numbing, dehumanizing and mindlessly repetitive nature of factory drudgery in a movie, and subjecting your audience to the same by involving them visually in that unbearable tedium.

• Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com

  I got the streamlined version of a minimalist modern art piece, when what I wanted was an old-fashioned documentary.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  Documentarian Jennifer Baichwal's film finds a way to comment on ecological and environmental destruction without bludgeoning audiences with heavy-handed messages. There is a mesmerizing quality to the film.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Burtynsky's photos are stunning (some of his images of dumps resemble Jackson Pollack's drip art), but what's most interesting about Landscapes is the tension between his work and the filmmaking.

Read all 19 critic reviews