Citizen K

Citizen K is riveting, informative, and a bit terrifying. It's a significant documentary.

Americans may go into "Citizen K" not knowing who this rather anonymous looking man is or how to pronounce or spell his name. But they will come out totally on Team Khodorkovsky.

[I]t is Gibney's film... that best tells this complex, contradictory tale of a businessman who rose from middle-class anonymity... to become one of Russia's richest men during the early days of Russia's post-Soviet experiment with capitalism.

It's Gibney's willingness to hold his subject accountable that keeps Citizen K from drifting into dull hagiography.

Essential viewing for anyone needing a history lesson about Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, and who wants a frontline report on the current geopolitical landscape in Europe, including Ukraine.

This is where [Alex] Gibney, gilding a history lesson and social-issue deep dive with investigative chops and weaving it all into a compelling story.

There’s no telling the story of Khodorkovsky without telling the story of Russia, and it’s for that reason that Citizen K is rather invaluable to people like this writer, Americans of a certain age who perhaps aren’t well versed in Russian history.

So dense you almost want to ask the projectionist to hit the pause button so you can keep up with the machinations of the narrative.

It never bores, never ceases to impress, and in the current political climate demonstrates that demands for transparency and trust are more pressing than ever.

The Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney tweaks a common documentary formula -- little guy who gets railroaded. This one is the story of a giant who got railroaded. In Russia, billionaires are victims of gross injustice too.