City of Ghosts - Movie Reviews (2024)

Vital and insistent, "City of Ghosts" is a movie that haunts you long after walking out of the theater.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 1, 2020

As powerful a profile on courage and the war on terror as you'll ever see.

Full Review | May 11, 2020

City of Ghosts works urgently...the grainy and grisly images contrast deeply with the Islamic State's own slick filmic efforts that ironically and blatantly mimic the language of Hollywood movies with unsettling efficiency.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2020

Documentaries don't get any timelier and pressing than director Matthew Heineman's follow-up to Cartel Land.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 28, 2020

The film is worth seeing for its personal stories and its realism, because real life rarely has the neat endings of fiction.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 26, 2019

The story, as assembled, therefore reflects the refugees' shifting situations, with a naturalistic combination of horror, tenderness and the vicarious heroic kick of seeing journalists sticking it to wrongdoers.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 1, 2019

Not for the faint of heart, but well worth it.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2018

... it's hard to do justice to a film that incorporates such difficult material without ... well, acknowledging its very real difficulty. But the rewards of City of Ghosts are worth it.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2018

Matthew Heineman's immersive filmmaking peels back the curtain, crafting a definitive take on one of the world's most horrific war zones.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Nov 2, 2018

Heineman's emotional approach threatens to turn City of Ghosts into a PSA... rather than a complex character study of dedicated men struggling to fight evil on the digital front lines.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

Astonishing viewing - but it will haunt you.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 8, 2018

A shocking and timely reminder of Syria's suffering, too much of it unseen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2018

This is a very, very difficult documentary. It is also a very, very important documentary and one I encourage everyone to see.

Full Review | Mar 8, 2018

Heineman has crafted a film about the barbarism of war, in which ideology blinds its adherents from recognizing the common humanity of others.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2018

Essential viewing.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jan 6, 2018

With a strong emphasis on audiovisual work as a source of power, we can grasp the meaning that the documentary goes through in this statement: "Words and the camera, like human technologies, are stronger than weapons." [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 28, 2017

Evils are beyond comprehension in this punishing, extraordinary documentary which gives a voice to the silent.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 27, 2017

On the one hand, this is an inspirational movie about the power of journalism. On the other hand, it is a solemn reminder of the utter destruction that war can bring.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 13, 2017

As history progresses and the Syrian Civil War is dissected and taught in schools, the portrait City of God paints of these activists will prove to be a key snapshot of courage in the face of monstrous tyranny.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2017

The film's final image, that of a journalist with a bounty on his head trembling in fear for his life, will haunt you for days

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 15, 2017