Both admirers and detractors of Zoey Tur will find no shortage of ammunition here, as Yoka does a remarkable job at keeping his film objective, and with some of the most incendiary documentary footage on record.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 13, 2022

Close to a hundred million people watched that live. Whirlybird is an invaluable document on how it happened.

| Jan 18, 2022

Given that the Turs participated in the documentary and, in theory, gave their blessing to whatever footage was recycled, it's both surprising and remarkable to see their troubled marriage depicted in such unflinching terms.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2021

Whirlybird disappoints with its bland journalism, ironically, making for an event-heavy, informational pamphlet and little else.

| Aug 26, 2021

A fascinating, captivating look into capturing up the minute news from the sky.

| Aug 24, 2021

A wholly unique story, ultimately resonating as a portrait of a deeply flawed person who has happily found some inner peace despite having outwardly caused chaos for others along the way.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 18, 2021

Whirlybird is a colorful personality portrait and an implicit indictment.

| Aug 13, 2021

A fascinating but troubling and uncomfortable character study.

| Aug 12, 2021

A heart-wrenching documentary about journalism, family and gender

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 10, 2021

It's a bit like a journalist wasting interview word space on describing the appetizers.

| Aug 8, 2021

Whirlybird is an enlightening look at both the evolution of televised news and how professional ambition caused a previously-solid marriage to fail.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 7, 2021

... mixes new interviews with extensive footage from Tur's archive into a compelling look at an influential news figure and his conflicted legacy.

| Aug 7, 2021

They spent a lot of their time being jerks interfering with first responders and then playing victim. I found the whole thing irritating.

| Aug 7, 2021

The beauty of this is that director Matt Yoka does not judge his characters, but lets them judge themselves.

| Aug 7, 2021

Interesting and worth knowing.

| Aug 7, 2021

Complicated people make for great cinematic subjects, and Tur, Gerrard and company do not disappoint.

| Aug 6, 2021

Quibbles aside, "Whirlybird" proves a memorably evocative time capsule of 1980s and '90s Los Angeles and the people who made - and captured - the news, as well as a stirring portrait of regret.

| Aug 6, 2021

Whirlybird is a documentary that has enough promising material to fuel maybe three or four potentially fascinating films but never quite manages to pull it all together into a single satisfactory whole.

| Aug 6, 2021

We cannot help wishing, as we do so often in watching what passes for news these days, that this story was told with more insight, context, and, well, focus.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 6, 2021

A fascinating insight into how individual choices can shape the news.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 6, 2021