75
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzRogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzIt is wrenching but never exploitive. It is impressively skeptical of the same mission that it takes on its shoulders: to make something positive from a senseless crime without diminishing its senselessness. This film doesn't just revisit an atrocity, it moves through it, and finds meaning in it.
- Matt Shepard Was A Friend Of Mine is a stirring, sometimes tough-going piece of documentary filmmaking: pure, honest and undiluted by hyperbole.
- This heartbreaking documentary should be shown in every high school and college — and everywhere intolerance is suspected.
- 75Slant MagazineNick PriggeSlant MagazineNick PriggeThe doc adopts the viewpoint specifically of those who knew him best, and seeks to separate the person from the emblem.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJosue’s film is not consistently effective in bridging her personal story with Shepard’s well-known legacy, but there are striking moments that explore the limits of forgiveness.
- 75Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMiami HeraldRene RodriguezThe main thing writer-director Michele Jouse, who was close to Shepard, wanted to do with her intimate documentary Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine was to give a voice to those who are still mourning him and allow them to share their stories.
- 70Village VoiceSerena DonadoniVillage VoiceSerena DonadoniJosue tries to reclaim his narrative with this intimate, positive portrait, but while Shepard's brave and resourceful parents encourage her, they realized long ago that his death means he no longer belongs solely to them.
- 70The DissolveThe DissolveJosue shows perhaps too much restraint, as if she’s not ready to deal with her lingering grief and can’t acknowledge it. This is a difficult criticism to make about a documentary this personal. So perhaps it’s interesting that the film’s shortcomings, then, are also simultaneously one of the more fascinating things about it, revealing the inevitable difficulty of filming grief, no matter the distance.
- 70The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldIn lingering over moody night streets and trembling faces, Ms. Josue has brought this film to the verge of becoming a tear-jerker. But, as epitomized in an extraordinary scene with a conflicted priest, it’s all part of a shared soul-searching that still continues.
- 70Los Angeles TimesMartin TsaiLos Angeles TimesMartin TsaiThe film is enough to prompt soul-searching among parents, educators and the LGBT community on how to provide adequate guidance and support for LGBT youths.