Rat Film

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2:10

Rat Film

Released Sep 15, 2017

1h 22m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

90%

Tomatometer

48 Reviews

56%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Across walls, fences and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Filmmaker Theo Anthony looks at the rat and the people who love them or kill them to explore the history of Baltimore.

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Critics Consensus

Rat Film explores the history of Baltimore, shedding light on the humans that live there with the help of science's favorite test subject.

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Dennis Harvey

Variety

Artfully assembled and often entertaining, the diverse whole nonetheless doesn't quite gel, with the film finally coming off as somewhat pretentious and heavy-handed.

Dec 28, 2017

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Vikram Murthi

AV Club

Though Theo Anthony's eclectic documentary Rat Film has the urban-dwelling rodent on its mind, it treats rats not as a subject but as a microcosm for systemic injustice.

Dec 14, 2017

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Sheri Linden

Los Angeles Times

[An] electrifying cinematic essay that asks us to reconsider a lot more than a maligned species.

Oct 12, 2017

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Erin Blackwell

Bay Area Reporter

[Director Theo Anthony's] approach is formal, poetic, and associative, but ultimately thin, strained, and incoherent.

Jun 4, 2020

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Steven Prokopy

Third Coast Review

Rat Film is a bold, creative, avant-garde documentary, with an often unsettling score from Dan Deacon, that all somehow combines into one of the most informative works about American culture that I've seen in quite some time.

May 13, 2020

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Tanner Tafelski

Hyperallergic

...provides the evidence that the problems of Baltimore's past are in fact the problems of its present.

Oct 30, 2019

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Audience Member

absolutely stunk! what a racist piece of shit! BLACK PEOPLE listen to me, you are the biggest racists on this whole planet! probably on other planets too! LOL RACIST bs.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A total waste of 80 minutes. Boring. Totally amateur. I learned absolutely nothing and don't even know what the point of this documentary was. Many scenes that had nothing to do with anything. Lots of footage with no speaking. I can't believe anyone would even air this thing.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a pretty stupid documentary. Clearly B quality crew. Never did understand the way they framed any of the story. Bizarre, even.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/28/18

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Audience Member

A good documentary at its core, but the focus diverts to issues that don't bear any relationship to the central idea. Really, it is a solid 30 minute film that has about 50 minutes of extra padding that doesn't do much more than bore, confuse or irritate the audience. This "essay-doc" is at times captivating, but more often it becomes scattered, self-indulgent nonsense.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is the worst documentary I have never seen. Long segments about video games and image mapping which have nothing to do with the main "plotline" make up a 20% of the movie, random scenes about about a crime scene investigation training school that have nothing to do with the base plot, cuts to the DJ making the soundtrack, winding uninteresting story lines that lead to nowhere... this movie has zero cohesion.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

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Theo Anthony

Director

Dan Deacon

Actor

Theo Anthony

Actor

Will Kearney III

Actor

Theo Anthony

Writer

Sebastian Pardo

Producer

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Rat Film: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Across walls, fences and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Filmmaker Theo Anthony looks at the rat and the people who love them or kill them to explore the history of Baltimore.

Director: Theo Anthony
Producer: Sebastian Pardo, Riel Roch-Decter
Screenwriter: Theo Anthony
Distributor: Cinema Guild
Production Co: Memory
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 15, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 27, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $33.6K
Runtime: 1h 22m

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