56
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceUnsparing, pedagogic, and genuinely compelling.
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxAduaka's comprehensive account of an African nightmare covers a lot of important ground, making this flawed film worth seeing.
- 70VarietyVarietyA passionate, harrowing drama about rebellion, atrocity and child soldiering in Africa, Ezra is raw and violent. There's no denying the film's power, or its frankness regarding the ongoing tragedy of Africa.
- 63New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsThere’s no questioning the sincerity of the filmmakers or the urgency of the subject matter, but the clumsiness with which this harrowing story of a child soldier in Africa may wear you out long before the puzzle is put together.
- 50New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThe story is hell to follow--the flashbacks aren’t in chronological order--and the nonacting variable.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe movie’s sense of time is as vague as Ezra’s perception of it. Chaos is all he knows. Making Ezra even harder to follow, and undermining its authenticity, is the fact that its mostly African cast speaks in a heavily accented English. Mr. Kamara’s glowering lead performance, however, is riveting.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe film is so committed to its view of Ezra as a pawn in the psychotic game of postcolonial Africa that he is never allowed, as a character, to become more than a pawn.