Bianca Garner Filmotomy Oct 11, 2024

Hal is a documentary that helps to remind us to stick to the man and to keep fighting for art even if it means going up against the big studio executives.

Go to Full Review

David Walsh World Socialist Web Site Feb 11, 2021

Ashby experienced an outburst of creativity and social criticism under the influence of the broad popular radicalization in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Go to Full Review

Steven Prokopy Slashfilm Aug 7, 2020 8/10

A stellar profile of the great filmmaker that is as radical and obsessive as its subject.

Go to Full Review

Ben Sachs Chicago Reader Mar 16, 2020

The result is an unsatisfying human study, albeit a successful overview of Ashby's work.

Go to Full Review

Lisa Trifone Third Coast Review May 29, 2019 2.5/4

Hal is a fittingly well-built tribute to a man who's best known for his masterful films... And as a primer for a decade's worth of must-see films, particularly for those among us who profess to know a thing or two about the art form, it's essential.

Go to Full Review

Pat Mullen POV Magazine May 24, 2019

Ashby's story is also one of the battle between the auteur filmmaker and the studios, and one of fighting for artistic integrity in an industry that continues to define itself largely by commercial success.

Go to Full Review

Erin Free FILMINK (Australia) Mar 11, 2019 18.5/20

It's heartbreaking, insightful, moving, authentic, hilariously funny, and wonderfully entertaining...just like Hal Ashby's movies themselves.

Go to Full Review

James Croot The Post NZ Feb 19, 2019 3.5/5

So while it provides plenty of fascinating titbits for fans of 1970s cinema, Hal just doesn't feel like the definitive take on one of the decade's most-distinctive directorial voices.

Go to Full Review

Peter Sobczynski eFilmCritic.com Feb 7, 2019

The film presents its case that Asbhy belongs right up there in the pantheon with his more celebrated contemporaries. It does a pretty good job of it as well.

Go to Full Review

Chris Knight National Post Jan 18, 2019 4/5

[Hal Ashby's] legacy has gotten a little, shall we say, dusty. But editor and first-time director Amy Scott aims to rectify that with the new documentary Hal.

Go to Full Review

Norman Wilner NOW Toronto Jan 17, 2019 4/5

I usually complain that most movies could lose 20 minutes or so. Some of them should be longer. This is one of those.

Go to Full Review

Elias Savada Film International Jan 4, 2019 3/5

...a reflective meditation on the (high) life and (best) films of Hal Ashby, a director of note during the 1970s, when he churned out award-worthy films that now shape this debut documentary from Los Angeles-based editor Amy Stone.

Go to Full Review

Armond White National Review Nov 2, 2018

Scott inflates Ashby's legend to the same useless effect that the recent Brian De Palma doc deflated his artistry.

Go to Full Review

Sean Mulvihill FanboyNation.com Oct 29, 2018 4/5

Hal succeeds because it's willing to do more than just construct a hagiographical portrait of a great artist and a flawed man.

Go to Full Review

Warren Cantrell The Playlist Oct 17, 2018 B

Hal serves as a wonderful examination of a masterful director who had a lasting influence on generations of cinephiles.

Go to Full Review

Brandy McDonnell The Oklahoman Oct 12, 2018

Scott layers the requisite biographical information and talking-head praise with the intriguing insights, indelible anecdotes and dramatic readings of his often-dramatic letters.

Go to Full Review

Bilge Ebiri Denver Westword Oct 11, 2018

In making the case for Hal Ashby as a major director due for reassessment, Amy Scott's documentary exemplifies the notion of cinema as a powerful, complex tool of personal expression.

Go to Full Review

Robert Denerstein Denerstein Unleashed Oct 11, 2018

If you loved any of the following movies (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home and Being There), you need to see Hal, a documentary about Ashby's life as a pot-smoking, adventurous perfectionist.

Go to Full Review

Scott Marks San Diego Reader Oct 5, 2018 1/5

If ever a film needed a little more "Just Say No!" (and a little less defense of the eminently unwatchable Lookin' to Get Out) it's this, but first-time filmmaker Amy Scott insists on sugar coating the snow.

Go to Full Review

Brian Orndorf Blu-ray.com Oct 4, 2018 B+

With "Hal," Scott captures the essence of the artist, creating an active, enlightening documentary in the process.

Go to Full Review