Brand works hard at verisimilitude on the plane and in the film's many intercut cable-news segments, but it's hard to achieve realism in a mode that's so completely contrived.
– Chris Packham,
Village Voice,
14 Oct 2014
fresh:
Even the failure to find a persuasive closing note doesn't detract from Mr. Oyelowo's riveting performance.
– Ben Kenigsberg,
New York Times,
16 Oct 2014
rotten:
Brand devotes so much running time to fear-mongering and grotesque stereotypes that a last-ditch effort at moral ambiguity and a critique on muckraking barely register.
– Martin Tsai,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Oct 2014
fresh:
Resourceful, Los Angeles-shot low-budgeter is solidly assembled, with Xander Lott's unobtrusive yet unsettling score a plus.