38
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
The Decent One operates under a discursive premise so presumptuous and flimsy that its attempted function as an experiential documentary proffers little more than a book-on-tape-on-film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Vanessa Lapa constructed this straightforward biopic about SS leader Heinrich Himmler from a recently found trove of his personal letters and photographs. Her streamlined approach seems appropriate for the subject, which boils down to the banality of evil.
75
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
Eerie and utterly riveting.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
It’s perhaps too focused on the Reichsfuhrer’s personal life... while the director’s decision to add sound effects to silent images sometimes feels uncalled for.
60
Apart from the devastating material itself, some of Lapa’s aesthetic choices are extremely off-putting.
60
The Dissolve by Matthew Dessem
Lapa’s story is in the disconnect between the words and the visuals, or the visuals and what we know to be true, or even the words from one moment to the next.
60
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
The voice-over-driven readings and the illustrative footage — unwisely augmented with new sound effects — lack a fundamental filmic momentum.
83
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Himmler in one of his letters says that “in life, one must be always decent, courageous and kind-hearted,” and “decent” is apparently how he saw himself right up to the time he swallowed a cyanide capsule after he was captured by the British.
60
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
At its most effective, though, The Decent One reveals a psychological portrait of a man devoted to his family yet consumed by a soul-blackening and horrifically destructive cause.
30
Most of the documents that Lapa quotes from are, as presented, unrevealing — even offensive.