Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
Through patience, skill, discretion, and trust, Jesse Moss has taken a seemingly small town story and turned it into both a microcosm of today's most urgent issues and a portrait of a single suffering soul.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
If John Steinbeck were writing in the second decade of the 21st century, "The Overnighters" is precisely the story he'd want to tell.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
"The Overnighters" is commendable for many reasons, not the least of which is the way it allows complex issues to remain complex. There is a clear conflict between the pastor and the town, but there's no good vs. evil.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
A sobering must-see, The Overnighters speaks to the eternal dilemma of doing the right thing in a community beset by suspicion and fear.

Name : Leah Greenblatt / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Filmmaker Jesse Moss frames his shots beautifully; the landscapes look like Andrew Wyeth paintings.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
The Overnighters sounds like the sort of dry news blurb you'd skim over in the Sunday paper, but it unfolds into an epic tragedy.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
So much of "The Overnighters" tells all sorts of truths, and Moss earned the trust of his subjects, whatever they might think of the result.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
Moss uncovers something greater than a vision of a divided community; he's made a drama as prickly and surprising as any fictional character study.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
A classic example of a documentary that discovers its subject in the process of its making.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
It develops into a study of obsession, hypocrisy, righteousness and self-doubt, questioning motive and then gob-smacking the audience with the wholly unexpected.

Name : Sheri Linden / Alias : Los Angeles Times
It's the rare documentary in which truly unpredictable events unfold and no assumption is safe.

Name : David Lewis / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Moss was basically a one-man production crew, which explains how he was able to film such intimate, painful conversations. His work is haunting - one of the best documentaries of the year.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
The movie might seem like just another liberal do-gooder profile, yet a shocker ending throws new and disturbing light on the situation, amplifying the Christian themes at the heart of the story.

Name : Trevor Johnston / Alias : Time Out
An urgent portrait of compassion under fire.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
Moss uses images of drill towers or blistering flame as visual metaphors for other things transpiring on screen: the fracturing of a family, the heated fury that comes with a sense of betrayal.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A scenario with present-day echoes of "The Grapes of Wrath" yields perceptive insights into the way we view outsiders.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
The film features stunning third-act revelations that compel viewers to rethink its characters' actions and motivations.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
[A] tough-minded, admirably unresolved film .

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
Composed of multiple layers - more than one of which might bring tears to your eyes - this shape-shifting documentary begins as one thing and ends as quite another.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
The animators are clearly trying to craft something bubbly, but they misguidedly go all in on imitating the contemporary Disney model - or DreamWorks', at least - rather than offering anything different.

Name : Michael Ordona / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It exists in the kids-only zone where parents go to pay for their sins or, hopefully, get a nap.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The sort of uninspired international pre-sales item that usually goes straight from a basement booth at the Cannes film market to a Netflix parent's peripheral vision.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Pacing can be painfully languid, to the point of being nap-inducing.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
All things considered, this pitifully plotted Belgian-French production represents the nadir of animated movies released so far this year, a farrago of frantic action and mindless cacophony.

Name : Raakhee Mirchandani / Alias : New York Daily News
Kids might be amused, but adults will find the jokes weak, the narrative bleak and little to pass the time between animal chase scenes.

Name : Jordan Mintzer / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An impressively made if highly juvenile version of a literary classic.

Name : Andrew Parker / Alias : Globe and Mail
Has a handful of novel 3-D effects, lots of bright colours, competent animation and little else.

Name : Helen T. Verongos / Alias : New York Times
"The Wild Life" is pretty to look at, with its skies and ocean, calm or stormy, and it has a driving soundtrack. But the story lacks that extra layer of complexity and meaning that parents can appreciate.

Name : Anita Gates / Alias : New York Times
The burning question is why Mr. Hyde's story has never been made into a feature film.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
It's no great shock when a movie based on a beloved book falls short of the original, but few fail as confoundingly as "The Wild Life."

Name : Chris Packham / Alias : Village Voice
Through photos and family lore, but mostly through Dayton's own eloquence, Mitchell assembles a biographical portrait that's inspiring in the best possible way.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Belgians may have bragging rights on waffles, but judging from "The Wild Life," their animated fare needs help.

Name : Sheila O'Malley / Alias : RogerEbert.com
There's always a lot to look at. The script is so-so, but the total lack of snark and cynicism in the film is refreshing.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : TheWrap
A dull, uninspired and frantically tedious animated re-telling of the Robinson Crusoe story, complete with a menagerie of ditzy, caterwauling beasts. Consequently, this cacophonous misfire feels a good deal longer than its 91-minute running time.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A confused, charmless take on the Robinson Crusoe story.

Name : Jody Mitori / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It's like the generic version of a Disney movie.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Whether dangling characters off the edge of a cliff or zooming around Crusoe's rickety wooden waterslide, the story is constantly on the go, launching objects and characters along the Z axis - and out over the audiences' heads.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
"The Wild Life" is an import from Belgium that should have been left at customs.