A former hip hop executive decides whether to make public her rape by one of the most powerful men in the music industry.... (Full plot summary below)
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A former hip hop executive decides whether to make public her rape by one of the most powerful men in the music industry.
Leave your thoughts about On the Record.
| TheWrapCandice FrederickIt does what so little of the dialogue has managed to do: implore audiences to embrace black female survivors and to understand the cultural and painful dilemmas they continue to endure along their avid fight to heal the wounds of the entire black race. Though it’s at times a gutting watch, it’s ultimately about hope and sisterhood. |
| Film ThreatSabina Dana PlasseOn the Record has so many beautiful instances of artful storytelling. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayTheir individual voices may not be literally captured in On the Record. But in this anguishing and essential film, they are heard — and the implications of being silenced for so long come through loud and shamefully clear. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattIf the subject ultimately proves to be more slippery and diffuse than in the duo’s previous films (The Invisible War addressed sexual assault in the military, The Hunting Ground, campus rape), it also never feels like less than required viewing: brutal, heartbreaking, and — with or without Oprah’s co-sign — utterly necessary. |
| New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienIn concert, they paint an intricate portrait of women forced to navigate the whims of men in a patriarchal culture that refuses to listen, let alone believe the voices of survivors — most pointedly, of black survivors, the documentary reminds us. In that vein, despite its faults, On the Record is a necessary social document. |
| TimeStephanie ZacharekWhile it’s all to the good that Drew Dixon’s story has come to light, it’s likely that Russell Simmons will always be more famous than she is. In another, more just world, it could have been the other way around. |
| The Hollywood ReporterBeandrea JulyOverall, On the Record is a stunning feat of complexity that’s both contained and expansive. |
| Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganRevelatory, moving, and honest, it is essentially the story of one brave woman’s decision to publicly accuse the rap mogul Russell Simmons of harassment and rape. But it’s also a painful, parsed education on the subject of black women and abuse. |
| VarietyOwen GleibermanOn the Record presents a searing, at times shocking exposé of alleged criminal acts. Yet here, as in those earlier chronicles, what’s extraordinary is the disturbingly intimate communion the film creates between the audience and the survivors. Not just the facts but the meaning of these alleged crimes comes scarily alive in the emotional details of their telling. |
| ObserverZach SchonfeldThe result is a brutal and haunting meditation on violence and power in the music industry — and whose careers have been derailed in the aftermath. |
