Critic Reviews

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  It's condescending, it's vague, it's unfair and, ultimately, it's pointless.

• Andy Webster, New York Times

  The specific roots of a pervasive sense of disenfranchisement are barely described, as are strategies for liberals seeking to reclaim the state.

• Michael Fox, Village Voice

  Paradoxically, the movie feels dated in the sense that it pre-dates both the recession and Obama's campaign, yet prescient in illuminating a crisis that plagues us today.

• Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

  Funny? Scary? Entirely logical? It all depends on your point of view, of course, and What's the Matter With Kansas? isn't likely to move viewers one way or another.

• Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

  It's finally a very sad movie, because it speaks to the profound depths of the political division in this country.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  Every single person in this film is seen as themselves, is allowed to speak and seems to have a good heart. I've rarely seen a documentary quite like it. It has a point to make but no ax to grind.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  Unfocused, dry and boring. It's a squandered opportunity to extensively and compellingly tackle provocative political, social and moral issues plaguing America.

• Bill Weber, Slant Magazine

  Not up to adequately framing the title's question, let alone answering it.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  Eludes deeper and larger questions. Such as lost elections, and their reasoning when God is not on their side. Nor the rising tide of racial and anti-immigrant strife fueling the Tea Party movement, whose unrecognized roots clearly reside in this doc.

• Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve

  A dull, scattershot doc about people who do NOT vote against their interests, since they consider social issues of greater import than economic ones.

• Dan Lybarger, eFilmCritic.com

  Chicago-based documentarian Joe Winston makes a valiant effort to make Frank's perspectives work on screen.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  Even-handedness is the film's strength and, paradoxically, its weakness.

• Pam Grady, Boxoffice Magazine

  The most compelling thing about it is what it captures: a snapshot of America's ongoing and endless cultural war at a moment when things begin to shift.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  What's really special about the film is that Winston and Cohen manage to make real characters out of these folks.

• Richard Knight, Windy City Times

  The filmmakers do a good job of humanizing their conservative subjects but eventually the rigid mindset of these folks cancels out any common bond liberals might feel.

Read all 15 critic reviews