Inside Deep Throat 2005

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: An entertaining and moderately informative documentary by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Bailey and Barbato aren't as interested in the picture itself as they are in the people who made it, a collection of hustlers, crackpots, cranks and stooges colorful enough to inspire Elmore Leonard. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: A fast and loose documentary that grabs you in the moment but leaves a distinct emptiness the morning after. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Eager to tell one story, Inside Deep Throat neglects the more compelling story within it. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: It's extremely entertaining. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's a good blueprint for people who don't know about the movie and what a huge impact it had. It doesn't do much more than that. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Bailey and Barbato can only scratch the Boogie Nights-influenced surface, but they cover the ABCs of pornography with undeniable zip. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: It just doesn't go deep enough. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The documentary has no great overriding argument it wants to make -- neither about the politicians-turned-censors who thought the world was coming to an end nor about those who saw Deep Throat as the apotheosis of American liberty. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Plays like a giddy prance through the minefield of the last three decades of American sex and politics. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The free-speech agenda is so entrenched that the concept of pornography exploiting women seems to catch the directors flat-footed. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Above all, the film is a lively, music-filled social history. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The movie will set off a slew of new questions. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Nimble, engrossing, and journalistically eye-opening. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This feeble documentary ends up perpetuating the very hypocrisy it means to probe. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A better film than its subject. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Things get fresher, funnier and, inevitably, more poignant when we meet the people involved in the making of the movie. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Bailey and Barbetto have mined this all-American circus for all its mindbending absurdity and legitimized it with a who's who of cultural critics. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: [A] valuable document of a cultural shift. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Bailey and Barbato aren't interested in classic documentary filmmaking. They're trendy dabblers in waste management, picking through the pop-culture trash to see what they can recycle for kitsch value. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: What's lacking here is a clear point of view. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: This lively, if maddeningly reductive documentary examines the influence of the low-budget 1972 film Deep Throat. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The absorption of Deep Throat into the political melodrama that was Watergate seems to have led to some grandiose statements in Messrs. Bailey and Barbato's documentary. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A fascinating look back both at a time when sex wasn't discussed in polite circles, and at Deep Throat itself. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Fascinating social criticism and a witty and relevant take on American sexual history. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although the film starts out with a clear thesis, by the time its 90 minute running length has expired, it is grasping at themes and topics that are beyond the limited scope of what a superficial documentary can achieve. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie uses new and old interviews and newsreel footage to remember a time when porn was brand-new. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: To me, at least, Inside Deep Throat felt drearily long (it's only about 90 minutes), and anyone who survived the anti-porn crusades of the '80s or the 'sex positive' porn of the '90s will find the arguments on all sides depressingly familiar. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Balanced enough to serve as a cautionary tale that cuts in several directions at once. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A history lesson that challenges many preconceptions. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Inside Deep Throat may boogie across this scorched terrain to an assortment of period pop songs, but it never lets you forget that that there were a lot of people who got burned. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: This trip down memory lane seems to have no agenda and treats principals on both sides of the conflict with respect. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Tracking down everyone possible involved in making the film, a raft of intellectual commentators and key participants in the lengthy legal battles, the filmmakers successfully place Deep Throat in the context of its time. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Beneath these cartoon floats marches a parade of greedy goodfellas, scheming exhibitors, idiot politicians, swanning celebs, and frothing religious fundamentalists. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: It's a fascinating story but not so fascinatingly told. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Makes a diverting case for Deep Throat as more than just a shadowy cinematic footnote. Read more