68
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceAs bluntly humanist and free-ranging as its subject, this brisk take on the life of poet, sociologist, educator, psychologist, and general pain-in-the-ass gadfly Paul Goodman is as much endangered-species doc as biography.
- 75Slant MagazineBill WeberSlant MagazineBill WeberThis bio-documentary of a New Left godfather presents a formidable character simpatico with today's zeitgeist in his championing of "spontaneous uprising."
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFilled with abundant evidence of Goodman as a public intellectual, assembled by its director Jonathan Lee, who believes the time is here for a rediscovery of his ideas.
- 70VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibReminiscences about Goodman and readings of his poetry are played over old pictures that capture his singularly seductive appeal and lively sense of humor.
- 70The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottI suspect that he would have approved of Mr. Lee's film, and not only because it approves so unreservedly of him. Paul Goodman Changed My Life may not have that effect on every viewer, but it has a passionate, almost prophetic sense of the impact that a writer and thinker can have on his times and the future.
- 70Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallChicago ReaderAndrea GronvallIn this heady documentary, TV footage of left-wing social critic Paul Goodman being interviewed by conservative host William F. Buckley Jr. in 1966 makes one realize how low public discourse in America has sunk since then: despite the men's political differences, their freewheeling discussion, touching on topics from education to pornography, is playful instead of rancorous.
- 60Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichMostly though, it feels like we're watching a superficial gloss on Goodman's CV rather than a probing interrogation of his legacy. For the choir only.
- 50Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrAs documentaries go, it's an able introduction that doesn't make its subject nearly as relevant to our current discontents as it could.