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Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House
MOVIE: HBO, Monday 8/18 at 9:00p (38 minutes)


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Starring Helen Thomas, and Rory Kennedy

A rather short documentary from HBO about long-time White House reporter Helen Thomas.

GENRE(S):	Documentary
CREATED BY:	Rory Kennedy Liz Garbus Jack Youngelson
FIRST AIR DATE:	August 18, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Simon Vozick-Levinson

This doc fits her quippy recollections into 45 minutes, for a bite-size profile in tenacity.

Hollywood Reporter Ray Richmond

Kennedy brings out her subject, and presents the evidence of her greatness, flawlessly in a film that you don't have to be a liberal like Thomas to enjoy. (But it probably helps.)

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

Thankfully, Thank You, Mr. President is less about Thomas' thorny relationship with the Bush administration than about her decades-long efforts to get power to speak truth, efforts she freely acknowledges ultimately had less effect on history than, say, the work of the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

Rory Kennedy’s sprightly 38-minute film is largely sympathetic to Thomas, who covered the filmmaker’s uncle, John F. Kennedy.

Variety Brian Lowry

The relatively brief 40-minute duration, however, feels about right--enough to sprinkle tidbits about Thomas' interactions with Reagan, Nixon and Johnson without belaboring any of them, while giving the veteran scribe an opportunity to articulate her view of the reporter's role.

TV Guide Matt Roush

In the entertaining profile Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House, she offers candid reflections on covering presidents from JFK to Bush 2.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

Thank You, Mr. President is a quick profile of an imperfect but fascinating woman at the right hand of 20th century American history.

PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs

Smart, charming, and brief (at 38 minutes), Thank You, Mr. President is also resonant.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

Impressive credentials and precisely the sort that calls out for a nice meaty documentary. So it comes as a shock that the film runs less than 40 minutes and is bafflingly slight.

Washington Post Tom Shales

Thomas is an individual with strong opinions; it's too bad that Kennedy chose to tippy-toe around some of them.

Slant Magazine Sal Cinquemani

There's nothing provocative about a documentary that, unlike its subject, refuses to ask tough questions or dig below the surface.

The New York Times Susan Stewart

Ms. Kennedy, who conducted the interview at her mother’s Hickory Hill estate, doesn’t ask the kind of hard-hitting questions that her subject is known for and never brings up the more extreme statements Ms. Thomas has made since she left United Press International and became a columnist for Hearst in 2000.

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

The fawning HBO documentary Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas At The White House, [is] the latest unfortunate example of the increasing tendency to confuse public temper tantrums with good journalism.

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Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House MOVIE: HBO, Monday 8/18 at 9:00p (38 minutes)

Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House
MOVIE: HBO, Monday 8/18 at 9:00p (38 minutes)