Critics score:
85 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies: My hunch is this innovative documentary will make you look at Mike Tyson differently. Not necessarily in a better light, but in greater context. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: An 88-minute stream-of-consciousness monologue that has you by turns sympathetic, perplexed, appalled, and enthralled. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I can't say I've ever wanted to be in Mike Tyson's head, but this documentary by James Toback certainly took me there, and I won't soon forget it. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Think you've seen enough of Mike Tyson for a lifetime? Think you know as much about him as you want to? Think again, and see James Toback's terrific documentary Tyson. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: When Tyson finally admits defeat and announces retirement, it's those crinkly, hurting eyes you remember. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: The most remarkable revelation of the movie is its subject's thoughtful, reflective eloquence and unflinching self-perception...Tyson may or may not be entirely who he says he is, but he's probably not who we thought he was, either. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Tyson can be brutal with himself, but Toback's fawning documentary lets him off easy. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Tyson is terrifically compelling and, more than that, unexpectedly moving. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The result is as gripping as a title fight and as mesmerizing as a conversation with a cobra. You may not be happy with everything said, but you will not be bored. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Hypnotic and ultimately incomplete. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Something of a cliche. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The term isn't generally applied to the subject of a nonfiction film, but 'starring' is the right description for Mike Tyson's participation in James Toback's provocatively sympathetic, impressionistic documentary portrait, Tyson. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: It isn't a profile; it's a conduit for Tyson to speak his mind. He's the film's only voice, but even when he's the only one talking, the story is still two-sided. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Listening to Tyson tell his side of the story, you come to understand him with new depth and complexity. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The closest most of us will ever come to an intimate chat with the champ. Read more

Allison Samuels, Newsweek: An extraordinary documentary. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Those who were furious at Tyson will be made even angrier by Toback's film, for here is a fresh provocation-an attempt to restore to Tyson the human dimensions that have been taken from him (by himself, of course, as well as by others). Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A grab bag of occasional split-screens and sometimes overlapping or echoing dialogue -- all of which does more to obscure than illuminate the self-deceiving subject. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Who is Mike Tyson? Soft-spoken lost soul? Vicious animal? Not even he knows. But it's eerily fascinating to watch him try to figure it out. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Mike Tyson is a damaged man but a man nonetheless. Dismissing him as an animal, a habit he sometimes falls into himself, is an error. His mind is far from empty, although it's a lonely, haunted place, and Tyson is a howl of humanity. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It all adds up to a fascinating psychological study, a film that goes beyond both the public persona and the fighter's own spin to get at the frightened, angry, explosive, yet utterly understandable boy who became a very troubled and very public man. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Deploying multiple split screens and a discreet but effective score, Tyson is hugely engrossing at the same time that it is not entirely credible. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Ultimately, this may be the closest we'll ever get to understanding how Mike feels about himself, and there's value in viewing that assessment. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: James Toback's Tyson is a documentary with no pretense of objectivity. Here is Mike Tyson's story in his own words, and it is surprisingly persuasive. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: You won't know what hit you after watching Tyson. This power punch to the gut is one of the best movies of any kind this year. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Half-appealing, half-pathetic. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: With Tyson, [director James] Toback has found a documentary subject as tragic and ridiculous, as bizarre and driven, as the heroes of his other films. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's a movie that's thought-provoking without being intelligent and candid without being truthful. The same aesthetic choices that [director] Toback seems convinced will set his documentary apart are also what diminishes its credibility. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A revealing portrait of the troubled Mike Tyson elicits horror and sympathy. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Some documentaries grow in the shadows; others demand to be made. The story of boxer Mike Tyson, powerfully recounted in a new film, is as rich as a Dickens novel. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Toback, to his considerable credit, turns that view around by showing Tyson as a complicated person who has more thoughtful things to say. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Toback fashions a sharp doc out of a blunt object. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Toback steers Tyson through every triumph and disaster you want to hear about, never pretending that the platform belongs to anyone but the man they used to call Iron Mike. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Although straightforward in format, the film capitalizes on an obviously intense connection between filmmaker and subject with psychological acuity and emotional power. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: [Toback] gives us Iron Mike in all his monolithic multitudes and allows us, for a brief moment, to peer alongside him into the existential abyss. Read more