The Queen of Versailles 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: I feel contempt for my contempt for these people. Whether that's my problem or the film's, I'm not entirely sure, but I'm leaning toward blaming Greenfield. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Captures the tone of the times with a clear, surprisingly compassionate eye. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: For Greenfield, the Siegels are a brilliant metaphor for everything farkakte about the U.S. economy and the culture that shaped it. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Director Lauren Greenfield's timing turned out to be extraordinarily fortuitous in its depiction of how the mighty also fall, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This rags-to-riches-to-almost-rags-again queen has an endearing knack for looking on the bright side. You find yourself, by the end, wishing her well. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The ironies pile up. But there is some pathos here too. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "The Queen of Versailles" is funny, sad, infuriating, instructive. It's the American Dream inflated to ridiculous extremes, until it bursts. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: There's more going on here than classist derision, and the filmmaker uses her footage to try to sort out her feelings. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: These are not horrible people, just ones who flung themselves enthusiastically toward the American dream as so many do. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Seriously, if this was the American Dream, couldn't we have come up with something better? Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's like a champagne bath laced with arsenic. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: The Queen of Versailles will prompt loathing not only among the so-called 99 Percent, but among those in the top 1 percent who would like someone more sane to represent them on camera. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: [An] excellent and unexpectedly nuanced documentary... Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: By the end, the movie has pulled off a small miracle: You become absorbed in the lives of these people for who they are and not what they own. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "The Queen of Versailles" ought to be required viewing for anyone who blames the rich for yanking the rug out from under America's economy. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The paradox of wealth without refinement remains unexamined but emerges as a metaphor for the American Dream itself. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Dig into your popcorn, and get ready for some snide schadenfreude. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: The Queen of Versailles is the lucky case of a documentary where life intervenes and deepens the film in completely unexpected ways. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Director Lauren Greenfield finds the pathos in an ultra-wealthy couple who willingly mortgaged their own future. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The Siegels make the Kardashians and Donald Trump look like tasteful pikers when it comes to egregiously conspicuous consumption, sheer hubris and utter refusal to take responsibility for their actions. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Queen of Versailles combines the voyeuristic thrills of reality TV with the soul-revealing artistry of great portraiture and the head-shaking revelations of solid investigative reporting. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What I left with was not hatred. I disapprove of the values they represent, but I also find them fascinating and just slightly lovable. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Like a Theodore Dreiser novel for our time, infused with the vivid, vulgar spirit of reality TV. It often had the sold-out Eccles Center howling, but also has elements of profound tragedy and allegory. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Through a clear lens unclouded by politics or blame, it offers insight into the hazardous American practice of living beyond our means. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Queen of Versailles" is beautifully constructed and frequently uproarious. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Although it's a guilty pleasure, "The Queen of Versailles" is artful enough that both the prosecution and the defense could invoke it when the peasants cry "Off with their heads!" Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: More than a social morality tale, this is a character study, with the title well chosen. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: It's priceless. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Every cutaway to their McDonald's takeout bags or fluffy white puppies (there must be a dozen of them) emphasizes a bedrock tackiness that will convert your audience into a snorting gang of Marxists-at least for a while. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This timely and involving documentary elicits both sympathy and schadenfreude. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: The film hardly feels hastily pasted together: Greenfield filmed long enough to document physical changes in her subjects. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "The Queen of Versailles" turns out to be a portrait -- appalling, absorbing and improbably affecting -- of how, even within a system seemingly designed to ensure that the rich get richer, sometimes the rich get poorer. Read more