Critic Reviews

It’s a sober account of police militarization in the 21st century that, no matter one’s stance on the matter, makes a brutal statement.

If Atkinson’s presentation is just a hair above “competent,” it does the job of exposing the corroded heart of American policing.

An assured doc debut that knows how to stand out in a crowded field, Craig Atkinson's Do Not Resist avoids the handwringing format of other (very welcome) examinations of 21st-century American policing, offering instead something like a despairing tone poem.

It’s not groundbreaking cinema, but Do Not Resist effectively begins (and furthers) this ongoing conversation about the escalating police state, racial profiling, and beyond.

Director Craig Atkinson's documentary explicates its points with blunt but persuasive efficiency.

A furious and often terrifying documentary about the militarization of US police.

Even without the guidance of narration or a single story arc, it becomes clearer and clearer that the war on terror has unwittingly spawned another war: between police officers trained to fight like soldiers and the people they’ve sworn to protect.

The doc is stylistically uninspiring, with a tedious threatening sound design, but the powerful subject matter largely overcomes such missteps.

Do Not Resist is an order to the viewer: watch.

The parameters of homeland security are chillingly assessed in Do Not Resist, a troubling documentary examining the escalating militarization of the nation’s police forces.