Critic Reviews

Parker makes an assured feature filmmaking debut, with poetic imagery and powerful narrative.

Parker creates a fascinating portrait of Nat Turner as neither hero nor villain. In the end, he’s portrayed as a man faced with tough decisions.

Both broader and deeper than the relentless and monotonous “12 Years a Slave,” it’s one of the few important movies to hit cinemas this year.

With The Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker has shown himself to be a confident, extraordinary filmmaker. He not only gets good performances from his cast, but has created a film that seems sure of itself, one that knows when to lean into depicting hatred, when to lean into depicting love, and when to cut away; when the look on a face is more important than the blood on a back and when it isn't.

The Birth of a Nation is one of the most confident writing and directorial debuts in recent memory.

This film puts Nat Turner and his moral journey dead center, and it asks you to take an unflinching look at how an inhuman system broke the human beings trapped in it.

It's a beautiful, reflective film even as it is also a brutal, visceral one.

A movie of potent provocation and surging humanity that ranks with the year's best.

When I say that Parker is a master manipulator, that’s meant as a compliment of the highest order. He gets us into this story and puts us unequivocally behind Nat.

A startling, powerful biopic.