76
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83Portland OregonianShawn LevyPortland OregonianShawn LevyThe result is a gripping film about a subject almost too good to be true.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfIf this profile is marred slightly by thematic tidiness and a willingness to overglorify the champion's rise (Fischer didn't even write his best-seller, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess), it still supplies a cracked, conflicted genius trapped in his ceaseless endgame.
- 80EmpireEmpireA compelling look at the tragic and bizarre life of an enigmatic champion.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJames GreenbergThe Hollywood ReporterJames GreenbergLiz Garbus' documentary tells the compelling and powerful story of the late chess prodigy.
- 80VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyAssembly is brisk and high-grade, allowing for the variable quality of archival materials.
- 80Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanThe sorry spectacle of the ranting codger never effaces the image of the boy concentrating his entire being over a chessboard. You have to love that kid and pity him.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottBobby Fischer Against the World does not traffic in easy explanations or medical diagnoses, but it leaves the strong impression of a continuity between the oddness Fischer displayed in early interviews and the mania so jarringly evident toward the end.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenBeyond the knights and rooks, Bobby Fischer Against the World tells the story of a Jewish kid raised in Brooklyn who spent his final years in exile as a fulminating anti-Semite and a raving anti-American.
- 50Slant MagazineSlant MagazineNote the noticeable uptick in the cleverness of the on-screen graphics or fitfully remember the movie poster's tagline, "His Greatest Match Was in His Mind," and you'll belatedly come around to the jarring downshift into Fischer's latter-day paranoia and anti-Semitism.
- 40Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneBoxoffice MagazineRay GreeneGarbus' over-reliance on interviews that state rather than dramatize Fischer's excellence makes this a portrait that too often seems more overheard than inhabited.