86
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVital, illuminating, and terrifying, Rory Kennedy's Last Days in Vietnam probes with clarity and thoroughness one moment of recent American history that has too long gone unreckoned with.
- 100New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithThat the story has largely gone untold is a shame, and Kennedy (daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy) has done a service to the country in reminding us.
- 91The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloIt’s not a documentary that reinvents the form or will alter anyone’s perception of the war, but sometimes a rich, exhaustive chronicle is more than enough.
- 90The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe story is full of emotion and danger, heroism and treachery, but it is told in a mood of rueful retrospect rather than simmering partisan rage.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinIn sum, Last Days is the best kind of documentary — it ties you up in knots.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfProvocatively, the film suggests that winning small battles was victory enough; Saigon natives, also interviewed, were left behind to endure death camps.
- This fact-driven doc is eye-opening and at times thrilling. A sequence following a chopper pilot trying to get his family to an American aircraft carrier is like a short film unto itself.
- 70VarietyRob NelsonVarietyRob NelsonThe docu’s accomplished summary of tension-filled events as they transpired from minute to minute comes at the expense of wide-angle historical context.
- 70The DissolveKeith PhippsThe DissolveKeith PhippsBy turning her attention to an underreported chapter in recent history, Kennedy has found a trove rich with unreal imagery and stories of heroism in the face of defeat.
- 50Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneFor American viewers who don't know, the doc will be a worthy footnote to a long bout of deliberate cultural amnesia, but it's too telling that the Vietnamese remain in the background.