Wang reveals the Chinese government treating public protests against official abuses as graver offenses than the abuses themselves; she documents a regime of violence that suppresses dissent and sustains impunity.

| May 17, 2021

Hooligan Sparrow must been seen by the widest audience possible.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 1, 2018

Wang has bravely crafted an indispensible documentation of how the Chinese government uses threats and intimidation to squash dissension...

| Original Score: 4.4/5 | Aug 28, 2018

To see Wang simply operating the camera is gratifying; a gesture that asserts critical presence in the face of state-orchestrated odds.

| Original Score: Recommended | Apr 1, 2017

Documenting what Ye Haiyan and other protesters are going through in China might not change anything. On the other hand, it might move the cause forward a little bit. Here's to a courageous filmmaker, and some courageous protesters.

| Original Score: B | Jan 15, 2017

It's a scrappy film, one made with significant use of hidden cameras, without title cards (...) and told through Wang's narration that echoes with nave wonder as she discovers the enormity of her story as she records it.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 3, 2017

Ms. Wang shows an inordinate amount of courage, a kind of guerrilla tenacity, in following Ms. Ye through her protests in Hainan, and her subsequent harassment.

| Oct 14, 2016

The searing documentary "Hooligan Sparrow" is a portrait of courage.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 8, 2016

The chaotic audio and video footage of these altercations generates enormous drama even as it eclipses the issues at hand; though undeniably heroic, the documentary dwells less on its subject than on its own production.

| Sep 1, 2016

The shards of surveillance of secret police, of intimidation by plainclothes operatives and the sheer oppressive weight meant to crush resistance are equally horrifying, and captured with kaleidoscopic perseverance.

| Aug 30, 2016

Gripping and thrilling, Nanfu Wang's debut documentary is a raw look at women's-rights activism in China.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 26, 2016

This raw and startling doc isn't about young rape victims in China and the institutions that enable the culprits. Instead, it's about the methods used to silence the activists who draw attention to those problems.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2016

Like a heart-pounding thriller set in a paranoid conspiracy, [the activist] inspires [the director] to be even more determined to get her story out to the world.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 12, 2016

Although it's structurally uneven, the film shines a thought-provoking spotlight on a courageous woman and offers a worthwhile salute to grassroots activism in the face of oppression.

| Jul 29, 2016

Budding filmmakers can take away a valuable lesson from the documentary "Hooligan Sparrow": You don't need fancy camera equipment (or in some instances, even a camera) if you're passionate enough about the story you want to tell.

| Jul 28, 2016

A whistleblowing documentary made with fearless guerrilla cunning ...

| Jul 22, 2016

It's miraculous that the film exists at all.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 22, 2016

"Hooligan Sparrow," which Ms. Wang also shot and skillfully edited, has the pulse of a mainstream thriller but without the pacifying polish and tidiness.

| Jul 21, 2016

Other movies have more powerfully exposed the corruption of contemporary China, but few have so articulately confronted how women always seem to be the first citizens to have their wings clipped.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 21, 2016

Rather than allowing Hooligan Sparrow to represent [subject Ye Haiyan's] achievement, [director Nanfu] Wang continually highlights her own plight.

| Jul 20, 2016