55
Metascore
4 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerBoxoffice MagazineMark KeizerIn his densely constructed and pretty damn brilliant film The Juche Idea, Finn takes aim at North Korean president Kim Jong-il's theories on cinema and how its ultimate purpose is to advance political ideology and party loyalty.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe film's satirical commentary about the intersection of politics and art is rarified, to be sure, but there is enough pointed humor in its execution to make The Juche Idea a provocative if intellectually challenging experience.
- 60Time OutS. James SnyderTime OutS. James SnyderIn the director’s hands, these societal passion plays and “documentaries” offer a terrifying, top-down perversion of art itself--another insidious extension of politics by other means.
- 50The New York TimesMike HaleThe New York TimesMike HaleThe Juche Idea is meant to be a comedy, one that cuts two ways: mocking the strictures placed on moviemakers in both Communist and capitalist systems. Viewers who don’t share the radical-nostalgist sensibility of Mr. Finn, who teaches at Emerson College in Boston, may find the humor both too rarefied and too obvious.