Merchants of Doubt 2014

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Tobacco companies have fallen far in recent years, but this zingy documentary explores how very high their p.r. machines set the bar for public misdirection. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This is a movie so intrigued by its designated villains that it almost conveys a perverse form of admiration, and the fascination proves contagious. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: In this glossy informational mode of filmmaking, organization is everything, and director Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) isn't much of a storyteller. Read more

Boston Globe: Subtle, it's not. But it is effective. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The jury's back in on the PR hacks who sow confusion and manufacture ambiguity in the public debate over climate change: they're guilty of crimes against not only science and their fellow citizens but humanity itself. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The fact that some of these spinmeisters proudly base their method on the machinations of tobacco-industry lobbyists is doubly damning. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Aside from an eye-opening investigation of useless and harmful flame repellents pumped into furniture, it sticks to climate change without broadening its scope to other examples of corporate spinning, which must be plentiful. Read more

Kevin P. Sullivan, Entertainment Weekly: There are times when it feels as if the film's selected anecdotes are only scratching the surface of a greater evil, but what does make it to screen is intelligent, vital, and enraging. Read more

Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter: There isn't a tremendous amount of new information in this generally well-crafted documentary. But it makes a potent, urgent case against the merchants of doubt who play games with the planet's future. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It may sound like a standard-issue advocacy documentary concerned, as so many are, with the perils of global warming, but it's a lot more than that. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A compelling expose of professional propagandists, though the movie itself is not agenda-free. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A great primer on how corporate propaganda works now, in the age of 24-hour news channels addicted to "debate" when there is none and "controversy" where none exists. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Shows how a bunko artist is a bunko artist, whether on a corner or on CNN. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Informative and infuriating ... Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Merchants of Doubt shouldn't be a hard sell. The fact that it is should make you very mad. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: You leave "Merchants of Doubt," as you do any good muckraking documentary, both fascinated and enraged ... Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: When (and before) the end credits roll, you will probably feel a sense of outrage - and helplessness. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Using images from sidewalk three-card Monte games, Kenner shows how often people can be suckered for their cash. His film demonstrates that professional cons are much, much bigger. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A movie about manufactured consensus would be a vital public service. But "Merchants of Doubt" isn't quite that movie. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: To quote one damning corporate memo seen in the film: "Doubt is our product." Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: The slickness of Kenner's presentation ironically distracts from the meat of his expose. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: This material might be familiar to Frontline viewers and magazine readers, but Kenner's telling of the stories proves independently dramatic ... Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: What Merchants of Doubt makes clearest is that these issues shouldn't be political. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: When "Merchants of Doubt" isn't making you mad, it makes you very simply, and overwhelmingly, sad. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: [It] means to make people angry, and to make them think. It will surely do the former. I'd like to think it will do the latter. Read more