66
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibA unique blend of camp and conviction, To Be Takei deftly showcases George Takei’s eclectic personality and wildly disparate achievements.
- 75The PlaylistDrew TaylorThe PlaylistDrew TaylorIn the new documentary To Be Takei, it becomes clear that Takei is a man who defies expectations and subverts stereotypes at virtually every turn. It’s just a shame the movie wasn’t as progressive as its subject.
- 70Village VoiceSherilyn ConnellyVillage VoiceSherilyn ConnellyTo Be Takei is never less than joyful — much like the man himself.
- The film is choppy in parts, but it is George Takei's approachability, his constant big laughter, even his singing (he performs "Don't Fence Me In" after explaining how the internment camps made the lyrics poignant to him) that tie it together.
- 63Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardJennifer M. Kroot plays things a bit too straight and safe by giving into basic emotional and thematic possibilities of each period in Takei's prolific early life and subsequent Hollywood career.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyTo Be Takei follows multiple threads without pulling any one of them satisfyingly into focus, making it amusing and even poignant, though not quite the window into its subject's life that it might have been with a more penetrating observer.
- 60The DissolveChris KlimekThe DissolveChris KlimekHe seems like one of the least neurotic men on the planet, and yet how could that describe someone who lived with a heavy secret for 68 years? That’s the question Kroot’s film circles without ever managing completely to ask, much less fully answer.
- 60New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDirector Jennifer Kroot’s good-natured biography is so appealing that even non-Trekkies may be convinced we needed a full-length documentary about the man who was Sulu.
- 58The A.V. ClubVadim RizovThe A.V. ClubVadim RizovThe technical, workmanlike production is made more irritating than necessary by Michael Hearst’s score, whose grating circus-comes-to-town sprightliness is routinely slathered over mundane footage.