Engaging documentary.

| Original Score: B | Feb 14, 2018

This bittersweet documentary about a comedian deemed enemy of the state is both haunting and instructive about rebellions, authoritarian governments and satirical humor.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 13, 2017

In an era when an American president rages over how he's depicted on Saturday Night Live and obsesses about quelling critical "fake news," this is one relevant film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2017

If Tickling Giants never digs as deep as it could, it's still a fascinating look at a culture just beginning to understand the power of sarcasm.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2017

Youssef himself with his crooked smile and exuberant enthusiasm comes across as someone who in a normal state of affairs would be just another amiably slick joker. But in this context he takes on the bravery and the bearing of a hero.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2017

[The film] surprises us on several levels. It reveals Egypt's familiar Arab Spring experience through a lens, that of satiric comedy, which is very different from the way we usually see it. And it has the personal element of Youssef's involving story.

| Apr 7, 2017

The film ends on a supportive note, but it's a melancholy footnote to the lost revolution, with its long and brutal endgame in Syria.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2017

This is both a fitting tribute to a brave man and his committed team, and a thoughtful insight into comedy's duty to speak truth to power.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 30, 2017

Powerful docu follows story of "Jon Stewart of Egypt."

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 30, 2017

Both smart political primer and tense cautionary tale.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 28, 2017

Mostly, the movie makes you understand how every society - and ours more than ever - needs people like Bassem Youssef to demonstrate that laughter will always be one of the essential ways to keep power in check.

| Mar 25, 2017

The man now known as the Jon Stewart of Egypt has graced us with satirical humor that sends a loud and clear message against repression.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 23, 2017

Media are their own giant, they shape beliefs and create community, instill hope and fear. Perhaps it's a lesson that will be taken seriously by viewers in the US.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 16, 2017

There's a lot to laugh at, and to learn from, in "Tickling Giants," a documentary that starts off by telling the story of one man and ends up speaking volumes about satire, freedom of expression and political pressure.

| Mar 16, 2017

Like Rosewater, Tickling Giants acknowledges that political satire carries much higher stakes under a repressive regime.

| Mar 16, 2017

This documentary juxtaposes humor with tragedy even as Youssef himself does.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 16, 2017

Tickling Giants comes off as both a fact-based look at fighting fire with funny and a prescient cautionary tale.

| Mar 15, 2017

Tickling Giants provides a comprehensive examination of Youssef's career highs and lows while providing a vivid personal portrait of its subject whose cheerfulness and resolve began to wither in the face of constant threats to himself and his family.

| Mar 15, 2017

The tale of "Egypt's Jon Stewart" makes for an engaging modern-history lesson.

| Mar 15, 2017

What makes Tickling Giants stand out is not just the remarkable story it tells, but the flourishes director Sara Taksler adds to the tale.

| Original Score: B | Mar 14, 2017