The film excels at conveying a chaotic era, enlisting archival footage and interviews with Jane members, medical providers and a reluctant, gentle-giant abortionist.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Since many women in the United States are essentially living in a pre-Roe world these days, this film couldn’t be more timely...

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 3, 2023

The Janes nevertheless assembles important voices to put an essential story on the record. Ignore any apparent hastiness in the delivery, for it’s too late to return to the way things were before.

| Dec 14, 2022

The Janes provides a fascinating historical overview of the struggle for abortion access — but also has crucial relevance for the times we're living in, as the fight for reproductive freedom continues.

| Dec 14, 2022

The Janes is so much more than a mere history lesson. It’s a vibrant, attentive film that emphasizes the collaborative spirit and radical potential of a small community able to do tremendous work on a large scale.

| Dec 14, 2022

Through individual interviews, a composite image forms of a society touched on every level by half its population’s lack of bodily autonomy.

| Dec 14, 2022

You don’t watch The Janes for aesthetic pleasure. The palette is sober, and the filmmaking itself is recalcitrant, in service always of its tremendous story. But there is one moment I found indelible...

| Dec 8, 2022

“The Janes” shows us the reality that many, especially people of color and those of lower socioeconomic status, now face without the constitutional law.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 2, 2022

At once historic and timely, The Janes underscores the dangerous and often deadly threat of unwanted pregnancy pre-Roe v. Wade. A compelling and sobering documentary.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 22, 2022

You can’t call it “fun” viewing, but following the Supreme Court’s abolishment of Roe v. Wade, the HBO Max documentary The Janes is a vital watch.

| Jul 11, 2022

Now that the court has returned the country to the harrowing years chronicled in this film, The Janes and the women it profiles is even more compelling and essential.

| Jul 8, 2022

Vital viewing for anyone interested in the history behind the headlines.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2022

The lesson from The Janes is that, in the absence of justice and political power, there's enormous potential for collective action.

| Jun 30, 2022

Relevant and timely documentary about the grassroots group that between 1968 and 1973 arranged for and/or performed 11,000 safe, affordable abortions prior to Roe Vs. Wade.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 30, 2022

The Janes interviews former members of Chicago’s underground network that helped people secure abortions.

| Jun 27, 2022

The Janes is a film that you feel in your gut.

| Jun 23, 2022

The revealing documentary, The Janes proves -- if there were any doubt -- that sisterhood is powerful.

| Jun 23, 2022

It’s also not that The Janes could tragically have been relevant at pretty much any time in American history since the passing of Roe v Wade that makes it so good. Although it helps. Rather, it’s that The Janes is a good story well told.

| Jun 19, 2022

The real power of the documentary lies... in the interviews it features with some of the women who were involved with the organization and who helped make this safe abortion access possible and available to the women of Chicago.

| Jun 17, 2022

While the production value may be lacking in comparison to other historical documentaries, The Janes is still an excellent viewing experience about women who went up against laws to help other women.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 17, 2022