56
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Director Koji Masutani has masterfully assembled a wealth of archival footage, photos and audiotapes, some of which has been recently declassified.
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxThe film does, however, assemble an amazing array of recorded conversations and vintage newsreel, and offers up enough press conference footage to make one nostalgic for the days when an uncowed, penetrating press really did serve the public interest, and the president was a smart, inspirational and often very funny figure who could think on his feet and fearlessly take on all comers.
- 75Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill WhiteSeattle Post-IntelligencerBill WhiteContrary to its title, Virtual JFK is less a counter-history of the Vietnam years than a tribute to John F. Kennedy's stubborn resistance to a military that pressured him to go to war on six occasions during his short presidency.
- 63New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoIt examines other crises faced by JFK - Cuba, the Berlin Wall, civil war in Laos, the insurgency in Vietnam - and finds that in each case Kennedy chose talk over tanks. (Often, he went against advice of aides and generals.)
- 60Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanAn elegantly constructed if misleadingly titled class lecture.
- 50VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibFilmmakers underline the immediate relevance of their conclusion: In matters of war and peace, who we elect president is crucial.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMany of the film's most entertaining moments are, ironically, its most peripheral: Namely, the extensive archival clips of news conferences in which an alternately relaxed and tense Kennedy jostled with journalists
- 50Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrMost useful and enlightening as a historical tour through the major crises of the Kennedy administration.
- 40The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisDirected by Koji Masutani, this speculative, provocative, frustrating and finally unpersuasive historical gloss races quickly and all too lightly over the major political crises that John F. Kennedy faced during his aborted presidency.