Bar-Lev's cameras prowl the streets of State College, Penn. to not only expose the details of the crimes, but uncover a hero-worshiping, sometimes ferociously self-justifying, culture.

| Feb 3, 2015

... manages to craft a mostly even-handed examination of hero worship, football fanaticism and the power of conviction in the court of public opinion.

| Dec 31, 2014

Happy Valley ... is less interested in assigning blame than using the scandal as a template to explore mob mentality and the perils of idol worship.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 16, 2014

It's not a groundbreaking thesis, but we still get a fascinating tour of a town that may never be the same again.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2014

It's an essential documenting of where we are, and it leaves you with a lot of necessary, troubling feelings.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 29, 2014

Bar-Lev lets his subjects off easy, but that's partly because they do so much damage to themselves.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 28, 2014

The film could've benefited from another 15 or 20 minutes of detail and nuance. What's there, though, is strong, thoughtful and disturbing.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 27, 2014

Though fascinating, the movie's more of a well-organized mess than a thorough examination.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 25, 2014

Harrowing, and deeply fair.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 25, 2014

Happy Valley is not a work of reportage so much as it's a portrait of a community suffering from mass dementia. This is the scariest zombie movie I've seen in ages.

| Nov 23, 2014

As an account of the events that shook Penn State to its core in 2011, Happy Valley is complete and very level-headed - but not especially revelatory.

| Original Score: B | Nov 23, 2014

Here it is, folks, in your face. Will you look or return to your own private Happy Valley?

| Nov 21, 2014

[A] thorough, thoughtful and disturbing documentary ...

| Nov 20, 2014

The documentary offers a compelling overview of the case, but Bar-Lev spends too much time painting Paterno as a victim and scapegoat. That advocacy doesn't sit well.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 20, 2014

Less an investigation into or comprehensive summary of the Penn State sex-abuse scandal than a look at the feelings it elicited, Amir Bar-Lev's Happy Valley is more concerned with the phenomenon of team spirit than any single question of fact.

| Nov 20, 2014

Filmed a year after the revelations, 'Happy Valley' isn't a you-are-there account; it's one that tries to locate sober conclusions after the dust has settled.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2014

What could "Happy Valley" conclude, ultimately? Any summation might have seemed glib or sanctimonious. We're left instead with troubling questions that might not ever yield satisfying answers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 20, 2014

You may cringe. You may sympathize. You may cringe at your own sympathy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2014

In what could be the biggest miscarriage of justice yet, Bar-Lev has disgracefully played right into the hands of people he once exposed as the enemies, burying the lede to a sickening degree.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 19, 2014

It has no new information to offer regarding the case, and doesn't even do a terribly coherent job of organizing the details for the benefit of some hypothetical ignorant viewer.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 19, 2014