The analysis is rich but more respected on an intellectual level instead of one that is genuinely moving, particularly as there isn't a natural flow to the pacing here.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 5, 2022

An eye-popping mosaic portrait of a nation on the move, though unsure of what exactly its moving toward.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 17, 2022

An extraordinarily confident feature-length debut.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 31, 2022

No matter what your image of modern China, it’s nowhere near complete until you’ve seen it through New York-based, China-observing director Jessica Kingdon’s eyes.

| Mar 28, 2022

Some of the most telling moments occur when those most under the states thumb nevertheless speak their mind.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 27, 2022

For those unfamiliar with the beast that is the Chinese socioeconomic structure, Ascension is sure to be a surprising look and perhaps a wake-up call. Those familiar might wish for a more pointed message at the end of it all.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 13, 2022

We could all learn a lot about how the world functions by watching this narration-less movie.

| Jan 21, 2022

A visually overstuffed, mostly mesmerising audiovisual symphony, even if it relies a little too heavily on arresting images over hard facts.

| Jan 19, 2022

The film is full of news, insights and revelations without pushing a dogmatic thesis: it's as open-ended and humanly interested as documentaries get.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 13, 2022

Crucially, the film never patronises. Is anyone learning anything westerners haven't learned too, just less explicitly?

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2022

Slyly observes China's transition from the world's factory to a massive consumer society.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 10, 2022

A fresh view of modern China, stripping away the mystery of their culture in an effort to survive. Jessica Kingdon creates a work of art & cinema that defines Chinese dreams.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2021

Ascension is poetic and profound with the sights it captures and its elegiac lament for another generation reared on false hope.

| Dec 28, 2021

Ascension powerfully shows us generations of people trying to figure out where and how they matter - to themselves, to their work and to the people around them.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 24, 2021

The observational structure of Ascension, about the "Chinese Dream", is truly immersive, and dredges up lots of questions we don't think about nearly enough.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 23, 2021

Ascension is remarkable for the access we're granted inside factories and in many areas of training for the Chinese labor force.

| Dec 6, 2021

It shows that, among other things, this allegedly communist country has as much class stratification as in any capitalist society.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 1, 2021

A vibrant mix of color, action and hubris with a guilty and anxious lining.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 20, 2021

I'm not sure how much insight this documentary affords towards the average Chinese citizens' everyday experience, but it does capture a kind of fin de siecle frenzy in denial of something more ominously final on the global horizon.

| Nov 16, 2021

The symbiosis between capitalist practice and cultural patriotism finds its strongest articulation in the many trenchant portraits Kingdon distills out of her sociological project.

| Nov 16, 2021