This fierce and fearless documentary is so brilliantly constructed that its message is inspiring as well as infuriating.

| Nov 30, 2021

Ava DuVernay's 13TH is essential viewing on the history of racism in America - and how the warehousing of black men in contemporary corporate prisons is rooted in the slavery of the past.

| Nov 30, 2021

DuVernay underscores the blatant yet rarely discussed clause within the 13th amendment of the Constitution.

| Nov 30, 2021

In her documentary, 13th, Ava DuVernay cites the wording of the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude "except as a punishment for crime..." but DuVernay gives the argument enormous cinematic force.

| Sep 24, 2018

DuVernay creates a cogent, compelling argument in 13th, which balances attractively filmed talking-head interviews with alternately heartbreaking and infuriating archival footage.

| Sep 24, 2018

What [DuVernay] achives in a relatively short amount of time... feels thorough and yet concise and it's calmly powerful.

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Sep 24, 2018

The urgency that courses through this documentary is that things actually can change if knowledge can be turned into momentum and momentum can become legislation.

| Sep 24, 2018

This doc is a calm, articulate, well-reasoned wail of anguish.

| Sep 22, 2018

13th tells us black Americans are not irrational. They are not making up racism or targeted arrests and police violence. 13th tells us black people are not crazy.

| Sep 26, 2017

What the film does beautifully, is its connecting of a thread that runs through the past one hundred and fifty years; we did not come to this place in history by accident.

| Apr 12, 2017

[DuVernay's] movie, for all its good words and bad pictures, lacks the fierce urgency of now.

| Mar 1, 2017

The latest film from acclaimed Selma director Ava DuVernay is a much-needed, sobering punch to the face that eloquently contextualizes the current state of America and one of its most important issues.

| Feb 27, 2017

It's a crazy amount of ground to cover, but only rarely does 13th sacrifice clarity for cinematic energy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 28, 2016

In its sweeping treatment of the history of American racism, the film brought me closer than I've ever been to understanding how it could be that so many people could have ever grown used to the moral catastrophes that were slavery and Jim Crow.

| Dec 28, 2016

Given the concerns about relations between law enforcement and minority communities, 13th could hardly be timelier.

| Dec 28, 2016

It's all very alarming and upsetting and terrifying.

| Original Score: A | Dec 9, 2016

Manages to capture the depth and insidiousness of more than a century of cultural, societal and economic oppression along racial lines and then condenses it into a brisk 100-minute package that could literally slip right into your pocket.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 9, 2016

The film is a revelation on so many levels. When it ends, the feeling of anger and sorrow is almost overwhelming.

| Oct 15, 2016

The documentary teems with facts and archive footage. The mass of information can be intimidating, but the argumentation is well-constructed.

| Oct 14, 2016

13th ... is dense with information, and it moves fast. But it's also a story told in images, and the ones DuVernay has chosen ring not just with sadness and horror but also cautious optimism.

| Oct 13, 2016