An undeniably provocative head-trip, laced with the most spectacular lightning-storm footage I've ever seen.
Comment
11/12/09
Act of God (2009)
73
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:11
Fresh:8
Rotten:3
Average Rating:6.8/10
Runtime: 75 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: This documentary from MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES director Jennifer Baichwal examines the effects of lightning strikes beyond just the physical. ACT OF GOD incorporates interviews with individuals who... [More]
Reviews for Act of God
1 - 11 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Philosophically ripe but cinematically undercooked.
11/06/09
Top CriticA mildly engaging documentary that feels somewhat incomplete without enough insight, revelations and thorough analysis. Ultimately, it doesn't quite find the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them intellectually.
11/05/09
Neither filtered through nor structured around another artist's work, and suffers from the lack of a unifying vision, its parts greater than the whole.
11/05/09
Top CriticInterlaces spectacular visuals with meaty chatter by various luminaries and laymen talking about life after being struck by lightning.
11/05/09
The approach matches up with the metaphysical aspects astonishingly well; the force of such ambient explorations hits you, surprisingly like a bolt out of the blue.
11/04/09
Baichwal is the least judgmental of interviewers, which is a double-edged sword when the solemn testimony ("I had come to meet me") induces a barely resistible urge to laugh.
11/03/09
"It changed my way of looking at the world," says one of the survivors. That's not a bad description of the movie itself.
10/29/09
The film doesn’t need a narrator, since the people whose accounts we hear speak so absorbingly. All talking heads should talk so articulately.
10/08/09
Thanks to filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier, the after effects of these 1-in-700,000-odds' strikes are brought into horrifically mesmerizing view and accompanied by a music track ... that magically reinforces the storytelling.
05/05/09
Act of God fearlessly approaches the natural and the supernatural, and the result is visceral, intellectual, heartbreaking, delightful and instructive, all at once.
05/01/09
1 - 11 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Latest News for Act of God
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review 
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