Metacritic-Rezensionen

Putting the viewer into a men’s circle like no other, The Work is a remarkable piece of reportage.

When the participants convulse and cry, the film’s empathetic connection is so direct and so strong, audiences may be driven to weep as well.

What emerges is as riveting as it is revelatory.

There’s also such a profound sense of support among the participants, albeit of the tough-love variety, that the movie offers a strange kind of hope.

An emotionally riveting documentary that may very well be the most powerful group therapy ever caught on camera.

In its visceral purity, Jairus McLeary's film drags male toxicity up into the light, offering it as a cure for itself.

The Work is a rousing, arresting and ultimately cathartic call-to-arms for the power and value of rehabilitation.

Though The Work leaves a lot unanswered about this unusual program (run by the Inside Circle Foundation), and the characters who participate in it, it’s an often tense and exhilarating glimpse into a moment in time that lets men prioritize honesty and tears over superficial displays of strength.

Opening an aperture into a process so ego-stripping that it feels unseemly to witness, The Work is enlightening yet also punishing.

The dry, strictly observational shooting style means the doc stays in the moment and rarely ventures out of the room where the programme unfolds, adding immediacy.