Leave it to Werner Herzog. The iconoclastic German film-maker ditches the documentary rule book for this intimate profile of the 88-year-old former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2019

For all [its] flaws, Meeting Gorbachev remains a fascinating study of a remarkable life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2019

Despite the film's obvious interest, it is a bit conceited and stately, a little like Wim Wenders' movie about Pope Francis, though without the sycophancy. Or almost.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2019

An important and interesting documentary about tumultuous times, then, but one that slightly suffers for being a touch too dry and over-friendly towards its subject.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 7, 2019

Meeting Gorbachev a Werner Herzog documentary with a difference: it could be a documentary by anyone. It is that maddeningly bland.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 6, 2019

Herzog and Singer have assembled a riveting and moving portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president and arguably the greatest living politician, guided by Herzog's mellifluous voice and gently probing interview style.

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

[Werner Herzog] is the perfect person to direct this movie... He brings a certain deep, deep truthfulness and verisimilitude.

| Sep 28, 2019

Herzog can be forgiven for his hero worship of the statesman so instrumental in the reunification of Germany, a politician who was born to rural peasants and never forgot that the people come first.

| May 29, 2019

Part of Herzog's wonderment at Gorbachev - "one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century," he says - surely has to do with such a rational, placid-appearing man not just surmounting insuperable limits but doing so with world-historical impact.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 24, 2019

Defining a politician's titan legacy in a singularly unexpected way, Meeting Gorbachev meets its expectations.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 16, 2019

A little soft soap is perhaps necessary in some cases to soften politicians up and get them on side, but it's rather too apparent here

| May 10, 2019

It's always a treat to hear Herzog's grave Teutonic accent, and for the most part he turns out to be a fairly thoughtful interviewer even if he fails to so much as bring up the name "Putin."

| Original Score: B | May 9, 2019

Meeting Gorbachev is a hagiography, but it's unafraid to position itself as such; Herzog makes his case proudly and passionately.

| May 7, 2019

Historians of the period will learn nothing new from the movie, yet it remains a stirring enterprise, especially when it peers back, beyond the bright public record of Gorbachev's heyday, into the mist of what feels like a distant past.

| May 4, 2019

What makes Meeting Gorbachev most interesting is the way we see Herzog shape the narrative through his questions, narration, and filmmaking skills.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2019

So deeply fascinating that there's nothing else the filmmakers could have done to spice it up. Herzog and Gorbachev could have joined forces to halt an alien invasion and invent time travel, and it still wouldn't have packed the same wallop.

| May 3, 2019

As interviewers -- and filmmakers -- go, Mr. Herzog is one of a kind, his searching curiosity complemented by his instantly recognizable German accent. His new film, he goes out of his way to note, is a love letter.

| May 2, 2019

The story Herzog tells is resolutely individualist, a tragedy centered on a great man.

| May 2, 2019

"Meeting Gorbachev," which Herzog co-directed with frequent collaborator André Singer, is less a journalistic endeavor than an admirer's tour - with room for blackly funny Herzog-ian touches in his choice of archival clip or patently demonic voice-over.

| May 2, 2019

Herzog shapes the film into a study in how world events often come down to quirks of character and circumstance. To another leader, glasnost or perestroika would not have seemed like obvious policies. A thaw might never have happened.

| May 2, 2019