Dinosaur 13 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The storytelling raises more logistical and legal questions than it's equipped to answer. But what Miller does have, for anyone unfamiliar with Sue's fate, is a story with a suspenseful climax. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: In his eagerness to create a David-and-Goliath story, and with his distractingly pro-BHI bias, Mr. Miller fails to ask a lot of questions. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The lawsuit and trial at the center of the story - the largest criminal case ever tried in South Dakota, we're told - take up much of the running time, and never grow dull. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Todd Douglas Miller's engrossing documentary covers the triumphant discovery - and government seizure - of the world's largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: The movie would rather play a tiny violin for its subjects-perhaps literally, given the gratingly manipulative score-than objectively untangle the legality of what one talking head dubiously describes as its "brilliant story." Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Private excavation and sale of fossils is a more complicated issue than this heavily slanted account would have you believe. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Involving story of scientific discovery and petty politics. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The fate of some very old bones may not sound like compelling cinema, but when they compose the 65-million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex that was 41 feet long and 18 feet high back in the day, all bets are off. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: A glacially paced film about an intriguing event, with talking-head interviews that are, well, fossilizing. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: "Dinosaur 13" may not be the best documentary, but as a scientific soap opera, it's a doozy. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: These events would have been better handled in a single installment of Dateline. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Has elements of legal thriller, political drama, academic throwdown and scientific geek-out. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Using home-video footage and talking-head interviews, Dinosaur 13 dramatically depicts the thrill of archaeological discovery. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: In its early scenes, Dinosaur 13 works nearly as well as a certain Steven Spielberg thriller, creating the giddy, ominous mood of past and present colliding in excitement. Read more

Rob Staeger, Village Voice: Unfortunately, Dinosaur 13 never manages to display the story's many complex parts in a way that enables viewers to grasp the whole beast ... Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: If Miller goes for the emotional jugular a little too obviously ... the gambit is largely justified by a story that, although it was covered in the national media at the time, still seems infuriatingly unresolved and fundamentally unjust. Read more