It unfolds like a well-told thriller and is absolutely damning in its portrait of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Not an easy watch, but a searing look at what led to the grisly murder of Khashoggi at his country's consulate in Turkey.

| Nov 5, 2021

It's an astonishing piece of work, both fearless and artful in the way it encompasses and orders layers of information. If our world needs new forms to encompass the complexity of modern life, The Dissident points a way forward.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 22, 2021

This hugely informative, superbly assembled documentary is designed to anger the viewer - and it does.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2021

Tyranny and its effects are no video game, but "The Dissident" overall retains the impact of its alarming narrative...

| Mar 29, 2021

it is, in the defiant spirit of Khashoggi himself, utterly merciless in its critique of a brutal Saudi regime.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 13, 2021

I would've preferred a more somber tone...I'm not sure that's what this subject needed. Nevertheless, it's an engrossing and horrifying story.

| Mar 11, 2021

A commendably unflinching critique of the Saudi state's tyranny and of its persecution of political dissidents.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 5, 2021

It is a horrible story of state-sponsored violence from arrogant bullies who calculated - rightly - that they would get away with it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2021

We can forgive Fogel if his portrait of Khashoggi himself seems a touch incomplete: with its restless style of activism, the film arguably builds on his legacy better than it would have done as a work of retrospective biography.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2021

The Dissident builds into a robust portrait of Khashoggi himself - and a clash of generations. But one of unusual contours.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2021

The Dissident explodes genres by combining them, equal parts political analysis, murder investigation, cyber thriller and paean to free speech.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 25, 2021

This sinister story is told with the breakneck pacing and paranoid edge of a Tony Scott thriller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 20, 2021

Told from various perspectives, including the journalist's fiancee Hatice Cengiz, it's another winner from the director of the Oscar-winning "Icarus."

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 16, 2021

This film made me think of the plight of journalists writ large.

| Jan 12, 2021

It should be required viewing for anyone who cares about free speech and democracy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 12, 2021

Thorough and competent, The Dissident works as an essential political documentary.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 12, 2021

This is a somber piece of work; it's not likely to cheer anyone up. But if the details of the Khashoggi case aren't for the faint of heart, facing the facts squarely is at least somewhat cleansing.

| Jan 12, 2021

But for all its wealth of detail and thematic ambition, The Dissident is a good documentary that never quite becomes great.

| Original Score: B | Jan 11, 2021

Try, though, not to let this ugly truth get in the way of a good story.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 11, 2021

We are daily reminded of the importance of a free media, of free speech. "The Dissident" is a reminder of how far some governments will go to suppress it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2021