Metacritic reviews

This is a riveting treatment of a fascinating subject.

The film spends its first half explaining the song -- famously and vividly about the cycle of Southern lynching. Its better second half-hour unmasks its composer as a compassionate Jewish guy from the Bronx.

An absorbing documentary.

Takes a fascinating look at the origins and impact of a ballad that's been called "one of ten songs that changed the world."

Polished, well-structured film.

Mining the song's associative richness, Katz's film works as jazz genealogy, Meerpol bio, Jewish-leftist puzzle piece, performance homage, and exegetic history of lynching.

Where pic excels is in the depiction of a rich leftist movement, with several cultures interacting expressively in the 1930s and '40s.

Michael Meeropol provides a far more eloquent statement of the song's enduring impact: "Until the last racist is dead, 'Strange Fruit' is relevant."