Capturing the Friedmans

Released May 30, 2003

1h 47m

Documentary

Biography

List

97%

Tomatometer

153 Reviews

89%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

The Friedmans seem at first to be a typical family - until one Thanksgiving while they are gathered at home preparing for a quiet holiday dinner, a police battering ram splinters the front door and officers rush into the house searching every corner and seizing boxes of the family's possessions. Arnold and his 18-year old son Jesse are both arrested. As the police pursue the investigation, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disintegrate, revealing disturbing questions.

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Critics Consensus

A haunting depiction of a disintegrating family, and a powerful argument on the elusiveness of truth.

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Amy Taubin

Film Comment Magazine

There's no doubt that the film delivers the emotional equivalent of a kidney punch, but that's as much a result of the filmmaker's attitude-better suited to entomological research-as it is to the Friedmans themselves.

Apr 10, 2018

Full Review

Will Self

London Evening Standard

While with any number of... documentaries one can happily say "wait until it turns up on the small screen", with Capturing the Friedmans it is well worth sitting in the dark to find out the extent to which you think you are being deliberately kept there.

Jan 9, 2018

Full Review

Empire Magazine

Rated: 5/5

Apr 1, 2006

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

Capturing the Friedmans has generated widespread interest in part because it provides one of the few glimpses to be found in the contemporary cinema of present-day life in America.

Feb 16, 2021

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

This is a sad film, but nearly a must-see.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 4, 2020

Full Review

Hollis Griffin

Common Sense Media

Captivating and intense. Mature teens+.

Rated: 5/5

Jan 1, 2011

Full Review

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Shael

A masterful narrative that changes your perception of the potent and widespread impact of abusive cycles.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/26/23

Full Review

Gareth v

A haunting and gruelling doco that will stay with you long after you see it. Structured around home movies of the Friedmans, this doco plays out like a mystery and is the best doco of 2003.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/19/23

Full Review

d p

Film about child molesters that, bizarrely, paints them as the victims. Utterly sick.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Thomas M

The best documentary movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/26/22

Full Review

Audience Member

You approach the documentary with an innocent outlook and hopeful for it to strike correctly in clearing the involved names, if it remains below your newsworthy radar, but find yourself unexpectedly turned from an intrigued viewer to a juror interpreting own conclusions based on what were factually delivered as captured and explained. Accessible courtroom drama outside the courts rather on the screen keeping you captivating on the series of unpredictable events trying to grasp some sort of whatever concrete truth between the precepted lines, and how it seeded familial dysfunction, properly presenting eyewitness testimonies mainly through a supposedly thorough range. Apparently under a limited scope targeting the main familial and procedural accounts alongside representational, debatable victimization, it actually still remains inconclusive despite truthful revelations that doesn't carry the actual truth beyond the grave, which proves this documentary being informally solid without ever losing interest amid a timeless discussion because of its inconclusion. (B+)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The premise is intriguing and there is gravity in the issues that arise with truth and the subjectivity of memories (especially in children) in the absence of hard evidence. However, this documentary is totally and utterly biased. Embarrassing lack of interviews of the victims and a romanticised depiction of an abhorrently dysfunctional family made this film almost unbearable by the end.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

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Andrew Jarecki

Director

David Friedman

Actor

Jesse Friedman

Actor

Elaine Friedman

Self

Andrew Jarecki

Producer

Marc Smerling

Producer

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Synopsis

The Friedmans seem at first to be a typical family - until one Thanksgiving while they are gathered at home preparing for a quiet holiday dinner, a police battering ram splinters the front door and officers rush into the house searching every corner and seizing boxes of the family's possessions. Arnold and his 18-year old son Jesse are both arrested. As the police pursue the investigation, and the community reacts, the fabric of the family begins to disintegrate, revealing disturbing questions.

Director: Andrew Jarecki
Distributor: Magnolia Films
Production Co: HBO Theatrical Documentary, Magnolia Pictures
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 30, 2003, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 1, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.1M
Runtime: 1h 47m

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