Parkland Reviews

Landesman's film isn't about the Kennedy assassination so much as it is about the rippling effect it had on the ordinary people who dealt with its aftermath.

Full Review | Original Score: B

This episodic drama is set in Dallas during the three days after the JFK assassination, and some of it is highly charged.

Full Review | Original Score: B

As someone who clearly remembers that November afternoon in 1963, and the days that followed, I was drawn to all of the detail in "Parkland."

Full Review | Original Score: 2.1/2

Peter Landesman creates a riveting look at those closest to the JFK assassination in Nov. 1963. New emotional life for a well-worn subject.

Full Review | Original Score: A

The film wastes no time and packs every minute with information, revelations and conjectures.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Exactly what was the mood in Dallas prior to John F. Kennedy's stop there in 1963? He wasn't liked much, which was the point behind the visit. Lest we forget, "Parkland" reminds us that these things are true.

Full Review

For those of us who vividly remember those four days in November 1963 as if it were yesterday, "Parkland" is a fascinating retelling of one of the darkest times in America.

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"Parkland" finds those telling moments in the margins, tying them together to show an America trying and failing to process what it was living through.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Parkland's an experiment in historical regeneration, but one that so accurately stages the shock of a senseless tragedy that it earns a look.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Its scenes of bloodied doctors, panicked aides, and devastated Secret Service Agents are gripping, but Parkland is marred by Landesman's efforts to ensure that the historical importance of every moment is not lost on viewers.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

Parkland is history as existential despair.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Landesman's point is not to connect dots, as they have already been linked by history. He leaves it to us to find meaning in the connections...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

There's something to be said for Landesman's attempt to limit himself to just the facts that we can all agree on. Just that much is dramatic enough and awful enough to make for a good movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

"Parkland" succeeds as it fails. For whatever its flaws, it is unforgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Parkland is wildly uneven, although compulsively watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Peter Landesman's well-made but dramatically unfocused re-creation of that November day and its aftermath ...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, as seen through the eyes of bystanders, insiders and other players.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Methodically and with generally unfailing good restraint, Landesman re-creates the grief surrounding the crime and the confusion of Oswald's capture and subsequent murder.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

While it does not offer or challenge any conspiracy theories, its elegiac tone, vintage atmosphere and shaky, hand-held camerawork hint at the all-consuming chaos of those few days.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

Parkland adds no significant knowledge to history or conspiracy theorists, but such details as the way Zapruder's scrunched-up eye pops wide open when he witnesses what will be forever imprinted on his retina and amateur film are vivid.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5