68
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAs important and eye-opening a documentary as you’ll see this year, A Place at the Table makes it impossible to think of hunger as merely another symptom of a shredded social safety net.
- 75Slant MagazineSlant MagazineMore difficult to convey are the web of moral and political issues that surround the hunger crisis, and A Place at the Table proves its worth most by how it treats this wider set of problems.
- 75McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMcClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreIt’s a beautifully shot and reasonably balanced film, but one that struggles to find a hopeful note to end on.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesA good documentary that is good for you. The bad news is that broccoli and bananas are neither available nor affordable for many Americans. That's the message of Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush's A Place at the Table, a necessary report on the national issue of hunger.
- 70Village VoiceVillage VoiceA Place at the Table attempts to document its subject with the progressive angle and emotional effect of such docs as "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Waiting for Superman."
- 70Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternIn addition to the dismaying facts and figures is a fuller sense of what hunger can look like, and feel like, among the millions of Americans classified as "food-insecure" — those who may not know, for themselves or their children, where the next meal will come from.
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasIt makes a persuasive argument — which it makes easier by not allowing any counterargument — but it’s unpersuasive as a piece of filmmaking. In laying out its case, it’s manipulative and dull by turns.
- 40Time OutTime OutAs an info dump, Table is admirably efficient, addressing everything from obesity to the limits of charity. As a film, it’s less compelling, with only one subject — Philadelphia single mom Barbie Izquierdo — getting enough screen time to put a human face on the crisis.
- 38Boston GlobeMark FeeneyBoston GlobeMark FeeneyAs morally engaged as the movie is, it’s also argumentatively slack. Precisely because it’s so easy to agree that hunger is bad, it’s hard to agree what to do.