90
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanKasper Collin’s I Called Him Morgan isn’t just the greatest jazz documentary since Let’s Get Lost, it’s a documentary-as-jazz.
- 100New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinIt’s mesmerizing, too vivid to be evanescent, too precious to hold.
- 100Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlCollin and company are after climate, not weather. They steep us in our awareness that Morgan and his New York have been lost, that our glimpses of it must either be through memory or hazed-up photography — or the music itself.
- 100The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyThe backbone of Collin’s film is the sole audio interview with Helen Morgan, made in 1996, shortly before her death. The story that she tells combines with the story that Collin builds around it to provide a revelatory and moving portrait of a great musician.
- 91The PlaylistGary GarrisonThe PlaylistGary GarrisonMore than anything else the film becomes a celebration of these two lives and the era of music that both created and destroyed them.
- 90Screen DailySarah WardScreen DailySarah WardCollin attempts to do more than recount facts; if he can’t always wholly capture the figures at the film’s centre, he can convey a sense of the time and place that Lee and Helen inhabited.
- 88Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenDirector Kasper Collins imbues this documentary with an ambiguous, unsettlingly empathetic emotional force.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijAn intriguing exposé of a gripping story.
- 75The Film StageTony HindsThe Film StageTony HindsI Called Him Morgan hooks you from the first moments and glides effortlessly toward an emotionally impacting and enigmatic conclusion.