71
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasThere are many layers to the man and the movie, and it’s hard not to leave the theater shaken.
- 91Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanYou may want to dispute Ruppert, but more than that you'll want to hear him, because what he says -- right or wrong, prophecy or paranoia -- takes up residence in your mind.
- 90VarietyVarietyUnnervingly persuasive much of the time, and merely riveting when it's not.
- 80The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisHis well-rehearsed rhetoric is shockingly persuasive, and since the majority of his premises are verifiable, any weakness in his argument lies in inferences so terrifying that reasonable listeners may find themselves taking his advice and stocking up on organic seeds. (Those with no access to land can, postapocalypse, use them as currency.)
- A grueling peek at a doomsday prophet's rigorous mind but in a sly way also a compassionate look at the strain Ruppert endures from knowing he has only ever been right.
- 60Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearWhile this totally impartial approach is admirable, it also robs Collapse of any invested sensibility. Smith has given this bull a stage on which to rage, but why the filmmaker has bothered to mount the platform in the first place is, frustratingly, anybody’s guess.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceSmith lets Ruppert's plainspoken autodidactic skepticism get gradually shriller until his arguments dissolve into tears of grief and frustration. There's an element of Errol Morris in the film, which implicitly psychologizes its subject and watches as he talks himself deeper and deeper into the hole.
- 50NPRMark JenkinsNPRMark JenkinsIf nothing else, while watching Ruppert, you'll believe he believes this stuff.
- 40New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanIt would have been helpful had Smith put his words into some sort of context, allowing others to assess his theories. Instead there's simply Ruppert, talking, raging and warning, as if his very life depended on it.
- 25New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoBoring.