The Central Park Five Reviews

Though relentlessly and admirably logical, the movie constantly glosses over the buried human element.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

... a respectable but often tedious film that adds little to what is already well known about this episode

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10

"The Central Park Five" ultimately fails to make its case that five teenagers were sent to jail for a crime they didn't commit solely because of institutional racism.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

When hysteria trumps innocence

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The Central Park Five takes one of the most sensational crimes of the late 20th century and strips the circus that followed down to its roots. The horrific attack in the woods on that April night 24 years ago was just the beginning.

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The central power of the film comes from hearing the accused finally telling their own stories.

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There's no grand epiphany or blinding revelation, just cogent storytelling framing a provocative and devastating incident in American history.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

The Central Park Five is such a moving piece of work, it is difficult to watch at times.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.3/10

The Central Park Five story is enormously engaging, and the presentation, and in particular the editing of this doc are both very accomplished.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

A powerful, moving, infuriating experience. Everyone should see this movie.

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The real story is about how terrible our society is in relation to the terrible problems of the judicial system, not the latter in and of itself.

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Involves a detailed reconstruction of how the story broke, was developed and was dramatized by lurid tabloid headlines.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

The doc is rife with smart or wrenching or shameful moments. The fresh interviews with the accused, now men, are invaluable.

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An unusually good documentary about an outlandish miscarriage of justice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Watching "The Central Park Five" is a deeply affecting experience.

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Puts the crime and the times in sharp perspective.

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Not only gripping and heartbreaking, but terrifying.

Full Review | Original Score: A

What the film does best is explain the psychology behind police and prosecurtorial attachment to a false story.

Full Review | Original Score: 7

Burns and company conduct a thorough, riveting investigation that does a far better job of assessing the tragedy than the justice system did two decades before. Of course, hindsight is an advantage we all take for granted.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

A sobering portrait of five lives destroyed on a terrible night and an earnest plea for thoughtful, well-considered justice in the future.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4