How to Survive a Plague 2012

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: From a terrible epidemic comes a beautiful documentary. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: If the movie expresses equal measures of sadness and outrage, it is charged with the exhilarating excitement felt by soldiers on the front lines of battle. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Tune in to the passionate voices in David France's brilliant documentary ... Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A serious, moving and sometimes astonishingly well-organized documentary about the history of AIDS activism. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: How To Survive A Plague conveys the urgency of activists who were fighting for their lives. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: France and his crew have sculpted years of old broadcast-news stories and home videos into a narrative that is impressionistic in its scope but coherent in its feeling. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: France, drawing on a wealth of video footage from inside the organization, turns that decade of rage, despair, and tenacity into an inspiring tale of effective political action. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Plague isn't the history of a disease so much as the history of a movement, and a portrait of those who refused to suffer passively. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: As this stirring, scrupulous doc reveals, the members of ACT UP fused the fervor of revolutionaries, the tenacity of trial lawyers, and the rage of the dispossessed to change the very shape of the epidemic. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A major addition to the body of work chronicling the AIDS epidemic, this is a passionate account of the hard-won breakthrough in making HIV a manageable condition. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: An exceptional portrait of a community in crisis and the focused fury of its response. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: David France has made an absorbing film to document that moment of immense implosion, called How to Survive a Plague. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: Moving and essential. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Mostly the film toggles between two emotions - the high of watching brave people go to war, and the low of seeing so many of them fall, as entire communities are destroyed. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: How to Survive a Plague is thorough almost to a fault. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Should be invaluable to every frustrated movement, as both a road map and a reminder of how vital personal activism remains. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: A heart-wrenching portrait of one of the saddest, most heroic chapters in American history. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: It can feel inchoate, dropping the viewer in the middle of events without much context, and it exacts an emotional toll. But its raw quality also makes it compelling viewing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: We grow familiar with the names and faces of many of the leaders in the movement. Some look directly into the camera and say they expect to die of the disease. Some are correct. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: One of the most important documentaries in years or decades ... Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: When it's over, this documentary lingers as a testament to extraordinary human bravery. It stands as one of the most heartbreaking and suspenseful sagas of the year. Read more

Claude Peck, Minneapolis Star Tribune: [A] powerful, messy and tremendously moving documentary ... Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A raw history, often cluttered and sometimes repetitive but, when strategies fail along with immune systems, deeply affecting. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Presents a valuable template for how grassroots activism can temper societal prejudice and challenge governmental indifference in the face of a mysterious and remorseless killer. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: A powerful reminder of the ability of committed men and women to agitate, organize and create real change in the world. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: It can't be long before we see the Hollywood version. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: A nightmarish clash comes to life in this devastating montage of inflamed voices, their rage infusing the very grain of '80s videography. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Hindsight allows David France's stirring How to Survive a Plague a concise overview's clarity and an epic narrative shape, with a happy ending to boot. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Dispensing with voiceover narration, How to Survive a Plague is instead a compilation of first-person remembrances, a time-toggling polyphony emphasizing both individual struggles against illness and collective action-the we of me. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "How to Survive a Plague" captures a saddening, maddening era that seems like far too many lifetimes ago. Read more