That Blackfish led SeaWorld to phase out both orca breeding and performances speaks to how we should view the film's legacy over ten years later.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 31, 2023

It often gives definitive statements about ambiguous events, and it does try to frame opinions as facts. But it also gave me a greater appreciation for these incredible animals and it challenged my past apathy towards their plight.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

This story is one that continues to make waves – should animals be kept in captivity for our entertainment? – making this a must-see Netflix documentary.

| Feb 3, 2022

After seeing this documentary, it would probably make you think twice about SeaWorld.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2020

An illuminating documentary not only about the cruel conditions that killer whales endure at theme parks such as Sea World, but the biology and psychology of the mysterious and majestic sea wolf.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 11, 2020

Blackfish is a well-edited and intriguing documentary, which delivers its message in a subtle yet memorable way. Shows featuring killer wales will never be seen in the same light again.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 21, 2019

Nothing says "family fun" like aquatic murder and animal mistreatment, right SeaWorld?

| Original Score: B | Aug 27, 2019

Blackfish unfolds as a documentary thriller, the portrait of a predator with a string of gruesome homicides on his record. But Tilikum is not cast as a villain like the shark in Jaws.

| Aug 6, 2019

Cowperthwaite's Blackfish is compulsive and emotive viewing, and far more chilling than your typical horror, that really deserves to be seen.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2019

With extensive interviews and an impressive amount of footage, Cowperthwaite stops just short of exploitation.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 11, 2018

Blackfish is a powerful reminder of how willfully ignorant - and how selfish - humanity can be.

| Aug 28, 2018

... a startling, disturbing, moving portrait of the male orca known as Tilikum, who currently resides at SeaWorld Orlando.

| Oct 21, 2017

Forcing killer whales to wave a fin at audiences from their watery jail cell is an inherent immorality that is brought thrashing to the surface in this documentary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 5, 2017

You won't forget Cowperthwaite's documentary, and you shouldn't.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 9, 2017

The product of Gabriela's research-alongside co-writer Eli B. Despres-is the riveting documentary Blackfish.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 5, 2016

Must be seen by audiences, and should be mandatory for wildlife lovers and advocates, so we can prevent another corrupt organization like Seaworld from ever rising to prominence again.

| Mar 18, 2016

Really great documentaries are like zeitgeist napalm; and Blackfish carries the torch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 27, 2015

For all it's artistic shortcomings, though, I really hope that this movie is able to instigate some kind of change in the way we treat orcas, or at least how we think about them.

| Original Score: B | Apr 8, 2014

Powerful, heartbreaking, disturbing doc about captive orcas.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 21, 2014

Perhaps the documentary form does have the potential to effect sweeping social change. Only time will tell.

| Original Score: A | Jan 5, 2014