77
Metascore
25 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFor American viewers of an intellectual/historical persuasion, there could scarcely be any documentary more enticing, scintillating and downright fascinating than Best of Enemies.
- 90VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonBoth fascinating as a glimpse at the not so distant past, and provocative as an account of what arguably was an early step in the decline of political discourse on television.
- 88Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreAnd the viewer is left with one inescapable conclusion. Conservatives further to the right than Buckley could ever have dreamed control Congress. And gays, like Vidal, can get married. They both won.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAlternately entertaining and unsettling documentary.
- 80EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonOutstanding account of a pivotal moment in small-screen history.
- 80Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekVillage VoiceStephanie ZacharekIt's fascinating. It's horrible. It's fascinatingly horrible. It's also, as Gladstone points out, a sterling example of the power that television, when it was still a "public square," could have.
- 80Time OutTom HuddlestonTime OutTom HuddlestonFocusing on the personalities rather than the historical context, directors Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville illustrate how both men’s lives were changed by the debates, and how neither could let it go even decades later. The result is perhaps better suited to TV than the big screen, but it’s a timely, thoughtful piece of work.
- 75New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithBest of Enemies illustrates how even literary swashbucklers can be reduced to schoolboy behavior.
- 63Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardRobert Gordon and Morgan Neville reinforce the very circumstances they outwardly condemn.
- 60New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierThis terrific, full-meal chronicle of the men and their mouths lets us hear from them not only during debates, but also in subsequent interviews, memoirs and articles.