[It's] a disturbing repristination of Chicago 1968... It is also an attempt to indict the media for its reportorial coolness and detachment from pain and reality. In its first objective it succeeds brilliantly. I am not sure it does so in its second.

| Jan 7, 2021

A plucky, hybrid film...

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 3, 2020

As relevant and timely as ever, Medium Cool is a masterclass in using real-life footage for narrative propulsion and remains one of the most influential documentaries of all time.

| Jun 22, 2020

As a document of 1968 America's psyche it's irreplaceable.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 22, 2020

Haskell Wexler has always been a pretty good cameraman, one of the best around, and indications are he's going to be just as good a director.

| Jan 17, 2020

Still rings with relevance and importance today as much as it did 50 years ago.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 5, 2019

This brilliantly uneasy film has a sharp enough sense of its own paradoxes to shake off as naive the very questions it raises.

| Jul 9, 2018

The film doesn't exactly end, because it's not so much a narrative as it is a mile-marker and a warning.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 31, 2013

Despite the 1968 conflict(s) dating the film to a very specific time and place in American history, there's nothing that can't be applied to what's going on today, especially with the new relevance of video images on computers and handheld devices.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 17, 2013

a quintessential late-60s time capsule piece

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 20, 2010

Wexler may have been going after something "cool," but what he came up with is smoking hot cinema that puts Jean-Luc Goddard to shame.

| Original Score: A+ | Aug 3, 2010

An interesting time capsule essay film that takes us back to the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and its police riot.

| Original Score: B | Aug 22, 2008

The mass media message is still relevant in this groundbreaking 1969 film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 23, 2008

Blending fact and fiction, Wexler's seminal zeitgeist docu-drama, shot during the Chicago riots of 1968, raises intriguing questions, just like Antonioni's Blow-Up.

| Original Score: A | Mar 18, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 7, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 26, 2005

Medium Cool is an awkward and even pretentious movie, but, like the report of the President's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, it has an importance that has nothing to do with literature.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 9, 2005

Moviemakers have at last figured out how bright the average moviegoer is. By that I don't mean they're making more 'intelligent' pictures. I mean they understand how quickly we can catch onto things.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 27, 2004