92
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleTower is art, first and foremost, a piece about adrenaline, bravery, grief and memory that stands as one of the year’s crowning achievements in emotional, illuminative storytelling.
- 100The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyThe animation, by Craig Staggs, has a notable imaginative specificity, and the meticulously complex interweaving of styles turns the film into a horrifying true-crime thriller that’s enriched by a rare depth of inner experience.
- 100The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisUsing a limited frame, Mr. Maitland does his own commemorating, inherently raising questions about terror, the nature of heroism and what it means to really survive. He also does something even more necessary: He turns names on a plaque into people.
- 91The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMaitland sticks close to the ground, providing a harrowing moment-to-moment account that foregrounds multiple acts of genuine heroism. The result comes as close to being a feel-good movie about senseless violence as anyone is likely to get.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAs the melee comes to feel like it may never end, the film executes a masterful narrative shift that will produce instant lumps in many viewers' throats.
- 90VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangA gripping dramatic reconstruction, a tribute to the heroes and the fallen, and inevitably an expression of nostalgia for the days when a mass shooting still had the power to shock, Keith Maitland’s film weaves rotoscopic animation, archival footage and present-day interviews into a uniquely cinematic memorial.
- 83ConsequenceDan CaffreyConsequenceDan CaffreyThis unique blend of docudrama, action movie, and cartoon immerses the viewer in a way that wouldn’t be possible in a more traditional film.
- 83The Film StageJohn FinkThe Film StageJohn FinkTower offers a chilling, first-hand account of those tremendously haunting days that live in infamy within our collective conscious: days that begin like any other until the unimaginable occurs.
- 63Slant MagazineChristopher GraySlant MagazineChristopher GrayBroadly, filmmaker Keith Maitland's treatment of the UT Tower shooting is both taut and humane.