Crown Heights's reviews
Media reviews
Roger Ebert
Ruskin's commitment to giving both men's stories equal screen time is honorable, but it tends to staunch the momentum of a given storyline whenever it's threatening to build to a head. The film's climax is powerful nonetheless, and the performances carry the day. Stanfield is a true movie star, radiating decency even as the character's shell hardens, and Asomugha, who is credited as a producer, holds his own against some formidable character actors.
The Washington Post
'Crown Heights' takes a more low-key, measured tone. It also, not incidentally, gives its black characters the agency, the power to fight back and the moral victory pointedly missing in the story that unfolded a generation earlier.
Variety
'Crown Heights' doesn't break much new ground, and it takes a while to find its footing, but thanks to strong, unshowy performances from Lakeith Stanfield and Nnamdi Asomugha, the film does project the feelings of helplessness and frustration that come from fighting against such an immovable object.
New York Times
'Crown Heights' nonetheless makes a powerful argument that Colin?s imprisonment was hardly an anomaly. Mr. Ruskin cuts in news clips of several generations of politicians from both parties (including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and former New York Gov. George E. Pataki) making tough-on-crime speeches promising longer sentences, more executions and less parole. In the meantime, the kinds of policies they promote take their toll on Colin.
Vulture
Ruskin has two engaging, emotive leads at his disposal in Stanfield and Asomugha, and yet the film barely lets them absorb the emotional reality of what their characters are going through, continually sending them into action and conflict and rarely letting them reflect. Ruskin's script never lets the foot off the pedal, which gives a dizzying momentum to the film, but not much personality.
The Hollywood Reporter
Perhaps cowed by respect for a real man who suffered so much, Stanfield seems reluctant to charm viewers. Warner is sympathetic, of course, but Ruskin continually requires wounded earnestness from his lead, and shows little of whatever spark of inner life must have been required for Warner to survive these years without losing his mind. (Dreamy flashbacks to the man's island youth do little toward this end).
The Guardian
Too often the film falls into the pacing, and styling, of a procedural TV drama and Ruskin treats his characters like chess pieces, propelling them forward without really illustrating who these people are. It?s a given that we?d care about Warner but that?s down to the facts of the case and Stanfield?s performance, not any form of characterization offered up in the film.
The Playlist
But much of 'Crown Heights' is surface, as we never connect much emotionally with the characters, because we rarely find out who they truly are outside of victims railroaded by a prejudiced system. Confusing the narrative is the story of Carl King (Nnamdi Asomugha), a lifelong friend who, despite having no formal legal education, devoted his life to prove Warner's innocence.
The Wrap
Like many docudramas, 'Crown Heights' must contend with the fact that we all know how this is going to end; even if you walk into the theater completely unaware of the Colin Warner case, the fact that the movie immediately establishes his innocence means that eventually he's going to get out of prison, or there'd be no story. Ruskin's script, unfortunately, never gives us enough to go on; we don?t really know much about these characters besides their role in moving the plot forward.
Indiewire
Part of the problem is Ruskin seems unsure of how best to frame this tragic American narrative, or to whom it ultimately belongs. While half the movie stays with Warner as he slowly adjusts to prison life (glossing over years in solitary confinement in the span of a single cut), the other half focuses on Warner's childhood friend Carl King.