94
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThere is no turning away from the screen.
- 100The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThroughout We Were Here there is not a hint of mawkishness, self-pity or self-congratulation. The humility, wisdom and cumulative sorrow expressed lend the film a glow of spirituality and infuse it with grace.
- 100Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAn extraordinarily moving examination of how the AIDS epidemic both devastated and transformed San Francisco's gay community, this clear-eyed and soulful documentary brings us inside the contagion in a way that is so intimate, so personal, you feel like you're hearing about these catastrophic events for the first time.
- 100The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeThe most gripping war movie you'll see this year, We Were Here tells first-hand the story of how AIDS attacked San Francisco, killing more than 15,000. Whole peer groups were happy, healthy, and then dead in months.
- 91Portland OregonianShawn LevyPortland OregonianShawn LevyIt's a horrific tale, filled with fear, confusion, anger, disfigurement, and loss. Weissman and Weber don't milk the pathos and they don't have to. Their interview subjects are brilliantly chosen, not only for their specific vantage points on the events but for their eloquence and depth of feeling. Time and again, the spoken and visual record of what happened overwhelms you.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberThe Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberDirector David Weissman brings a rewardingly fresh and personal perspective to the subject.
- 90Village VoiceMelissa AndersonVillage VoiceMelissa AndersonA simple, powerful act of bearing witness, We Were Here is a sober reminder of the not-too-distant past, when gays were focused not on honeymoon plans but on keeping people alive.
- 80We Were Here concentrates on the impressive way a collective of disenfranchised individuals came together to support one another in this time of crisis. In that respect, the title has dual meanings, referring to both the film's "Shoah"-like survivors' testimony and the fact that the gay community was there for one another at a time that government and medicine were slow to respond.
- 80Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearIt's far from a definitive statement-why does ACT UP, a seminal presence in SF, get such short shrift? - but this oral history provides a righteous cri de coeur for those who perished in the precocktail era.
- 75Slant MagazineBill WeberSlant MagazineBill WeberSimply and devastatingly letting five residents of San Francisco share their reminiscences of that city's nightmarish "war zone" in the early, horrific years of AIDS, We Were Here creates a harrowing, streamlined oral history.