Soundtrack to a Coup d'État
critic Reviews
, 97% Certified Fresh Tomatometer Score- Director Johan Grimonprez's sprawling documentary moves to a furious beat, laying out its thesis with an energy that's as enthralling as it is thought-provoking.
- , Fresh Tomatometer ScorePhilip ConcannonLittle White Lies
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a dense and meticulously constructed picture.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreKimberley JonesAustin Chronicle
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat relates not just Lumumba’s assassination but the larger role the Congo, a nation rich with natural resources, played in the Cold War, and the so-called Congo Crisis’ surprising intersections with midcentury American jazz.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScorePhilip De SemlyenTime Out
It’s the quietly magisterial Fiennes who steals the show. Don’t be surprised to see white smoke billowing out of the Academy Awards come March.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreAaron TymeTime Out
It might manifest as a straightforward historical documentary, but the fascinating, hypnotic Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat unfolds into something much deeper -- and more sinister.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreRobert AbeleLos Angeles Times
The effect, although lengthy at two-and-a-half hours, is dreamlike yet propulsive, a timeline that’s optimistic and sinister at the same moment.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScorePeter BradshawGuardian
This is a film which has a little of Oliver Stone in the way it inhales something eerie and sinister in the atmosphere, and it’s something to set alongside Leon Gast’s 1996 documentary When We Were Kings.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreSean P. MeansThe Movie Cricket
A rich account of a violent history that most Americans have likely forgotten — which is a shame, since American tax dollars, funneled through the CIA, financed a lot of it.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreMilana VujkovLola On Film
An inspired detective-like piecing-together of a painful, chronologically shredded historical trajectory that might have been too ambitious (or impossible) to cover without the cleverly devised bebop shortcuts.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreChris McCoyMemphis Flyer
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’s stylish use of memoirs by people who were there, as well as copious archival footage, seeks to tame the sprawling Congo Crisis.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScorePedro GallegoEspinof
[Johan Grimonprez] establishes a powerful tension here where the artistic becomes an uncomfortable ally of power, investigating its own capacity for influence. [Full review in Spanish]
Read full article