The Waiting Room
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Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 10 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: The Waiting Room uses unprecedented access to go behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn. Stretched to the breaking point, Highland is the primary care facility for 250,000 patients of nearly every nationality, race, and religion, with 250 patients – most of them uninsured – crowding its emergency room every day. Using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover, the film offers a raw, intimate, and often uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers cope with disease, bureaucracy, frustration, hope and hard choices during one typically hectic day. (International Film Circuit)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    Oct 18, 2012
    100
    This is human drama at its most intense and universal. This is the rare film that can change the way you think and see the world.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    Sep 25, 2012
    100
    Scrupulously apolitical, The Waiting Room is the opposite of a polemic like Michael Moore's "Sicko." But by removing any editorial screen, it confronts you head-on with human suffering that a more humane and equitable system might help alleviate.
  3. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    Sep 25, 2012
    60
    The documentary's scope feels a bit small overall - more concerned with capturing the episodic adventures of these disparate subjects than with connecting their experiences to larger societal ills.

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