Critic Reviews
67
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
17(85%)
mixed
1(5%)
negative
2(10%)
Showing 20 Critic Reviews
90
Offers the clearest analysis of globalization and its negative effects that I've ever seen on a movie or television screen.
90
Devastating, artful, and intelligent documentary.
90
Black's cool-headed but blistering indictment of globalization and the racist international economic policies that have shoved that country into crushing poverty.
83
It's smart, instructive political cinema that tackles complex issues of the globalization with practical examples and vivid images and presents its effects in immediate human terms.
80
After viewing documentarian Stephanie Black's dour exegesis of the wrecked Jamaican economy -- only the most insensitive vacationer will want to set foot anywhere near the resorts and beaches of Montego Bay.
80
Hard to watch, harder still to ignore.
78
To paraphrase Nathan McCall, this film makes you wanna holler.
75
This is a sophisticated and unsettling documentary marred only by a voice-over taken from the writings of Jamaica Kincaid.
75
What's frustrating for the viewer who wants to support the Jamaican economy is that "Life and Debt" does not suggest how Jamaica-lovers can help the island's citizens.
75
Employs both eloquent and down-to-earth methods to explain the complex reasons why so many of the world's developing countries remain caught in an economic quagmire that prevents them from becoming self-sufficient.
