95% The House I Live In

All Critics (43) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (2)

The House I Live In is a work of journalism, not propaganda: Jarecki has done his research and leaves it to you to decide what to make of it.

If [it] takes a while to focus, it eventually becomes the conversation starter the subject desperately needs.

Jarecki takes a highly original approach to create a compelling, thought-provoking look at a highly relevant and controversial topic.

An absorbing, disturbing sit.

It's a film as profoundly sad as it is enraging and potentially galvanizing, and it's one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to hit the screen in years.

Jarecki's case is so compelling that, when he concludes by comparing the drug war to the Holocaust, the obvious charge of hyperbole doesn't quite stick.

Jarecki is a stickler for sticking to his subject, or sub-subject, until it squeals like a leech victim.

Jarecki offers 100 small conclusions rather than one big one for you to take away.

This urgent and formidably smart movie - perhaps the year's most important political documentary - has opened minds and changed laws already.

Tells a complex story with troubling ease.

Persuasively argues that punitive laws against users have historically involved disproportionately targeting poor, non-white communities.

Jarecki's parade of experts and eyewitnesses is impressive, as are his arguments that race and class prejudice enter into the policing efforts of America's drug warriors.

Jarecki's conclusion is powerfully plausible

There's no confusion about Jarecki's point of view in The House I Live In- he's out to make the case that America's drug laws cause far more damage, to individuals and communities, than drug use ever has

The film deserves credit for offering a unique perspective on a relevant social issue.

The House I Live In is depressing stuff, but it sparks the fires of anger, and from that anger, possible action.

This film could serve as a potent tool for those trying to change 40 years of public policy.

A thought-provoking, compelling documentary that encourages you to look at our national drug policy in a broader context.

Statistics abound in this thorough analysis of the declared war [on drugs] that, like Vietnam, we are losing.

A devastating dispatch from the front lines of America's war on drugs, the film tracks the rise of the prison-industrial complex as masterfully as the filmmaker's previous work took on its older military-industrial cousin.

You will hear a Lincoln historian, Richard Lawrence Miller, compare the War on Drugs to the Holocaust and be convinced. Then Jarecki finds a Lexington, Oklahoma corrections officer who finds his way to many of this man's same conclusions.

It's hard to deny the frustration of judges and correctional officers who have seen people locked away for decades while drug usage remains constant.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_house_i_live_in/

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