An interesting documentary that had me challenging popular thoughts as well as weighing the wealth of new evidence and theories surrounding the case.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2022

I found myself leaving the theater in a stunned silence and amazingly disappointed in a justice system that seemed far more invested in protecting itself.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 27, 2020

West of Memphis could have made a statement about presumptions and the fallibility of our justice system. Instead, we see millionaires like Vedder feeling good about themselves for saving three innocent people.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2019

West of Memphis is a weighty expose of human nature, and Berg proves herself once again to be a master of her craft.

| Aug 6, 2019

A compelling chronicle of true crime, paranoia, and a world where justice no longer holds any meaning.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 6, 2019

Sadly hindered by some questionable finger-pointing and an inappropriately celebratory ending... But West of Memphis is still commendable in its scope and passion.

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

West of Memphis aims to take a more established and polished cinematic approach to the material, detailing the entire story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

A documentary that distills 19 years of a witch hunt, a grass roots movement, lost leads, confusion, countless appeals, and hope into one remarkable movie that is hellbent on setting the record straight.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 9, 2013

It effectively condenses what took the 'Paradise Lost' films nearly eight hours to reveal into a tight, snappy 149 minutes that affords you everything you need to know about the West Memphis Three.

| Original Score: A- | May 13, 2013

It's another case where, instead of a prosecution having to prove a case, a defendant has to choose the lesser of two evils. "This happens all the time," defendant Damien Echols says of the whole process, and he's right.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 13, 2013

It's not a new story, true, but "West of Memphis" makes it both extremely personal and universally painful.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 5, 2013

A sobering look at how the wheels of justice can be -- and are -- manipulated by political expediency and a small town's tendrils of the old boy network

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 4, 2013

The film is so utterly transfixing you won't believe almost two-and-a-half hours have passed when the final credits roll.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 29, 2013

We feel like we're watching an overlong true-crime television episode and not a movie.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2013

I would have preferred Jackson's clinically-presented project display a bit more reverence for the three young lives that were brutally taken some twenty years ago.

| Original Score: B | Mar 18, 2013

Moving and gruesome, West of Memphis is an eloquent disquisition on the banality of evil.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 15, 2013

A real-life horror story, made no less shocking by the familiarity of its early scenes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2013

"West of Memphis" re-examines evidence and retells the story in a methodical and procedural fashion in which even the false steps lead somewhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 14, 2013

While the "Paradise Lost" films captured events as they unfolded in the heat of battle, "West of Memphis" has the luxury of at least partial closure.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2013

More a recap and appendix to the Paradise Lost trilogy... one can't help but feel that the celebrities involved needed this document of their efforts to appease their vanity.

| Original Score: B | Mar 13, 2013