75
Web Junkie is a little sad, a little funny and a little scary. I'd say that I wish it had been a little more provocative.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
With filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia granted extraordinary access to one facility, they make for a bizarre and entertaining documentary.
91
The specificity of the documentary, staying within the walls of the boot camp for virtually the entire movie, is one of its biggest strengths since it is able to place you right alongside these kids.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Duane Byrge
Filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia probe this phenomenon, jarring viewers with an inside look at one of these “reform” centers, as well as shedding light on the mindset of these Internet “addicts.”
63
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
Brief and timely, this documentary directed by Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia is also frustrating.
60
Barreling toward its rapidly modernizing future, China takes Internet addiction more seriously than most nations: To watch Web Junkie, an often scary yet half-realized documentary, is to see a society trapped in its old solutions.
80
The slow (albeit unevenly paced) unveiling of the boys' stories is persuasive and chilling.
58
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
It’s clear that these kids have a genuine problem, and a more probing film might have questioned the cultural factors that contribute to it, as well as the efficacy of more or less kidnapping errant youths and trying to coerce them back into productivity. Web Junkie doesn’t do much probing, however.
60
Shlam and Medalia haven’t constructed the film particularly artfully—it’s sluggishly paced, and the two boys at its center aren’t vividly drawn—but Web Junkie is a case where the access is so unexpected and revelatory that it’s a wonder just to have the footage.
75
Slant Magazine by Steve Macfarlane
Without a frame of footage nor a single interview presented from outside the camp, the documentary shows a capitalist nightmare that accords its victims zero wiggle room.