What is Democracy? asks that question by posing it to various people - experts in Greek history, social scientists, academics, ordinary Americans - and comes up with some startling answers.

| Oct 25, 2021

Astra Taylor's examination of what might be one of the most cherished concepts of our time is bold, proudly intellectual, decidedly feminist, and, in its perhaps most incisive aspect, skeptical...

| Oct 25, 2021

What Is Democracy? is a fascinating documentary that poses a lot of thought-provoking questions and makes one wonder if we indeed live in a democracy or just thinly veiled oligarchies in slavish service to economic elites.

| Oct 25, 2021

Taylor's investigation feels intended not to make audiences scream or cry, but to make them think ... and, perhaps, to take their thoughts and put them into useful, democracy-upholding action.

| Oct 25, 2021

One could imagine the place of Taylor's film in the classroom, though one would first have to imagine the kind of classroom this country appears bent on destroying.

| Aug 29, 2019

Taylor's film demonstrates how democracy sometimes yields lemon when the fields bear finer fruits. It's up to us to take those lemons and make lemonade-and, quite frankly, to add the nip or two of gin that makes it tolerable.

| May 21, 2019

This doc, which is weirdly tranquil, explores not so much democracy but the roots of much of the misery in our one and only world.

| Mar 13, 2019

Astra Taylor offers a thoughtful examination of the meaning and origins of democracy...

| Mar 1, 2019

[A] kaleidoscopic, somewhat random, yet always involving approach to a major concept that, despite the wealth and breadth of Taylor's offerings here, feels like just the first step in surveying anew where democracy stands.

| Feb 22, 2019

[Taylor] presents an inclusive and necessary debate, asking whether democracy today really is of, by, and for the people, and if it ever was.

| Feb 14, 2019

A thought-provoking documentary presenting the challenges and flaws of democracy from ancient Greece to modern times.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2019

The impact may have been greater had Taylor and editor Robert Kennedy trimmed some rough edges and leaned further into the more effective asides.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 1, 2019

Taylor's take on the topic is multi-layered, and one that if you don't pay close attention to, you might miss. But once defined, can democracy ever live up to its promise? That's something you'll need to watch What Is Democracy? in order to figure out.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 22, 2019

Taylor's film is an energetic one, styled as a typical issue picture, but willingness to open a dialogue that's refreshing and intellectually energizing.

| Jan 19, 2019

Astra Taylor's What Is Democracy? offers the art of thoughtful conversation as an antidote to the fraught political hysteria of the public sphere.

| Jan 18, 2019

Unfocused but consistently engaging.

| Jan 16, 2019

Like democracy itself, the movie assumes such a broad mandate and has such noble intentions that indicating its shortcomings seems almost beside the point.

| Jan 15, 2019

Vital, profound and eye-opening. It's far more provocative, fair and balanced than any films that Michael Moore and Dinesh D'Souza have ever made.

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Jan 15, 2019

The film indexes the manner in which democracy has become abstracted and polluted, especially by governmental capitulation to the meddling interests of free-market capitalism.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 4, 2019

Incisive.

| Dec 6, 2018