The Unknown Known

He poses simple questions and lets them talk, and talk, and talk. In doing so, he gives them enough rope to hang themselves.

Morris's commentary comes in the form of stunning images ... and a truly beautiful score ... The Unknown Known is revealing, but what it reveals is emptiness.

[A] scary inquiry.

By now the director's technique is so savvy, so confident in its visual layering and atmospheric assurance, even a dodgy, cagey camera subject such as Rumsfeld becomes movieworthy.

Morris doesn't "break" Rumsfeld, as some think he did McNamara. He has held a mirror up to the man, and found no reflection. The viewer simply has to realize that what's important is what's not there.

What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a bygone approach to power, marked by a seemingly contradictory mix of transparency and obfuscation. Rumsfeld embodies that discrepancy.

Why not a new style rather than hiring someone to ape a past collaborator? That’s the exact problem repeated on every level.

The film may not be Morris's strongest film, but it's certainly a worthy edition to the pantheon of investigative oddities he's been building over the course of the last three decades.

A gladiatorial bout for the Information Age, we may not come out knowing a much more than we did going in, but it's hard to dismiss the historical value Morris' interrogation may have in the future.

[A] disconnect between content and intent characterizes the entirety of his film.