Nobody Speak drifts at times and lacks sweep and historical perspective. But it is a troubling foreshadowing of things to come if journalists are threatened, sidelined or attacked by powerful institutions and people more concerned with their own interests than what’s best for the country or communities.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
Just because Nobody Speak has a timely message doesn’t make it an ideal messenger.
Consequence of Sound by Dominick Suzanne-Mayer
While the connections Knappenberger draws between private and government corruption are sometimes belabored, they’re also accurate, and a stark reminder of the increasing popularity of “bought” news.
Brian Knappenberger’s urgent new documentary Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press is the sort of movie that impacts your viewpoint long after it ends.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
The issues it addresses are of massive importance.
Knappenberger crafts a compelling and infuriating tale of big money flouting freedom of speech in an era where freedom of speech (thanks in part to social media) has become more democratized and, perhaps, more dangerous than ever.
A film about the vital importance of speaking truth to power needn’t be so concerned with dressing up its own frightful truths, but Nobody Speak still compels as an opening statement on journalism’s dubious future.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
This documentary is an invigorating, disturbing portrait of the arrogance and sinister self-importance of rich people, bullying politicians and their battalions of lawyers.
Nobody Speak is a little unbalanced, and top-heavy, thanks to the overwhelming focus on the more murky Gawker trial.
It’s a subject that should appeal to anyone who doesn’t wield the words “the media” as an insult.