...it’s honest and real, and viewers are trusted to respect the limitations and perspectives of the protagonists rather than being urged to suddenly turn on them...

| Jan 12, 2023

Tthe family members - Quest; his rock-solid wife, Christine'a; and their teenage daughter P.J., who gains in character and complexity as she grows up before our eyes-are too individualized to represent anything but their own determination and decency.

| Apr 16, 2020

The filmmakers are content to allow us to spend time with these people; they recognize the power of connection and compassion.

| Mar 23, 2020

Filmed over the course of approximately a decade, this powerful and poignant picture moves well beyond its original niche.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 21, 2019

Moments like these speak to people's basic humanity and, combined with the Rainey clan's refusal to suffer defeat, give us reason to be optimistic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 21, 2019

[The Raineys are] fascinating subjects to say the least and director Jonathan Olshefski couldn't have made them more interesting if he'd written them.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 22, 2018

The gentle, persistent rhythm of the film's pacing subtly underlines the family's continual push forward against all odds and since you feel so incredibly lucky to spend any time in their company.

| Nov 1, 2018

To strip the preconceptions away and simply watch as a family prevails against the stacked deck their country sustains to keep them down is to see an honest slice of America.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 10, 2018

...a story worth telling, but due to a lack of context and poor directing, that story is executed in the most boring manner possible.

| Original Score: D+ | Jun 4, 2018

Ordinariness-and [Jonathan] Olshefski's ordinary, level-headed approach to documenting their life-is the keynote of this intensely moving and involving film.

| Mar 8, 2018

There is no grand narrative or point to be hammered home; instead, Olshefski delivers a subtle, sincere and honest portrait of barely making ends meet in modern America.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 23, 2018

Quest is one of those great movies that captures the turbulent currents of American life by zooming in on a single household.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 22, 2018

Things happen - some severe, some less so - and life goes on. And always there is Olshefski, a one-man film crew who captures it all and distills it for our narrative pleasure.

| Jan 24, 2018

It may be impossible not to be moved by the goodness, grace and dignity displayed by the Raineys as they weather challenges.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 5, 2018

At a lean 90 minutes, Quest never drags, but it's also begging to be extended into that update of An American Family which, for some reason, has never materialized.

| Jan 4, 2018

"Quest" could very easily have been titled "An American Family" as well.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 4, 2018

... we rarely see such lives depicted in a straightforward yet affirmative fashion, lives that are no less important than the marquee ones we obsess over.

| Jan 3, 2018

The political lens is unavoidably sharp, but the embedded filmmaker captures moments of strength and support, crises that mark the health of their children, neighbourhood resilience, and the nourishment that hope requires in this working-class community.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2018

The finished documentary is a meditative study in the everyday realities of poverty, gun crime, and racism, whilst offering a moving portrayal of people united by love and affection.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2017

Through eight years of filming ... the director discovers an everyday American story of extraordinary strength.

| Dec 14, 2017