Like the city, Koch comes across here as brash, contradictory, almost endlessly fascinating and a bit sad.

| Nov 3, 2020

Barsky wisely includes just enough dissenting voices and admissions of grievous error by Koch himself to prevent the pic from seeming like a 100% feel-good puff piece.

| Nov 3, 2020

Koch offers as comprehensive a picture as it can in 94 minutes of a man whose tenure merits a miniseries.

| Nov 3, 2020

It isn't really any more illuminating beyond the history we already know, but it humanizes the man in a way rarely seen in the national media.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 6, 2019

Both as a portrait of a changing New York City and the man who was at the epicentre of that evolution for over a decade, Koch is a delight.

| Original Score: B | Aug 28, 2013

An engaging if incomplete portrait of an unconventional politician.

| Original Score: B | May 17, 2013

Forget "A Tale of Two Cities:" - the documentary "Koch" is a tale of two mayors. At LEAST two.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2013

The film neither glorifies nor vilifies. Instead, it treats triumphs and controversies with equal balance.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 8, 2013

A fascinating, multi-faceted look at a very complicated man, a quintessential New Yorker who was both an uncommonly skilled politician and, at times, a tremendous jerk.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 2, 2013

He was certainly combative, and confident, and full of love for the city he governed with such gusto. Koch is a New York story for the whole world to appreciate.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 26, 2013

The gift of Koch is that it embraces the clutter and volume of opinion about the man.

| Original Score: B | Apr 18, 2013

What he really was was one of a kind. Whether intentionally or not, "Koch" shows that that's not necessarily a bad thing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 11, 2013

An emphasis on Koch the character obscures his administration.

| Mar 14, 2013

First-time filmmaker Neil Barsky does a generally remarkable job shuttling back and forth between clips from archival footage...and an intimate 2010 interview he conducted of Koch.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 5, 2013

Neil Barsky's contentious documentary turns into a celebratory eulogy for the outspoken, opportunistic octogenarian.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 2, 2013

Barsky gained Koch's cooperation on the film -- the filmmaker interviewed his subject extensively -- yet his portrait of the man shows both his good and bad sides.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 1, 2013

Though the film, more than two years in the making, was never intended as such, it plays like the kind of eulogy Koch would have approved - neither fawning nor eviscerating but always compelling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2013

The film advances no theories to explain his contradictions, only a thrilling, sometimes affecting account of what he did.

| Feb 28, 2013

The former mayor is an alert onscreen presence, but the film surrounding him is not always so lively.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 28, 2013

"How'm I doin'?" Koch famously asked anyone and everyone he passed by, rarely hanging around for the answer. In "Koch," for the most part, he does all right.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 28, 2013