''Roll Red Roll'' is a 2018 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film, directed and produced by Nancy Schwartzman. It follows the

Steubenville High School rape case The Steubenville High School rape occurred in Steubenville, Ohio, on the night of August11, 2012, when a high school girl, incapacitated by alcohol, was publicly and repeatedly sexually assaulted by her peers, several of whom documented the acts o ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on April 22, 2018. It was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on March 22, 2019, by Together Films, prior to its debut on POV on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

on June 17, 2019.

Plot

The documentary looks into the

that occurred in August 2012. It also documents Alexandria Goddard's investigation and documentation of the crimes through her true crime blog.

Cast

* Alexandria Goddard * Rachel Dissell * J.P. Rigaud

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on April 22, 2018. In February 2019, Together Films acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, while POV acquired broadcast distribution rights to the film. The film was released in a

on March 22, 2019, prior to its debut on POV on

on June 17, 2019.

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reports an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average of .

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score, rates the film 83 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim". Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "A tough but essential watch, “Roll Red Roll” documents how a sexual assault in a declining Appalachian town became an international cause célèbre." Owen Gleiberman of ''Variety'' wrote, "... piercingly relevant and disturbing documentary about an infamous high school rape case...". Oliver Jones of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' wrote, "And while it is good that a director as versed on the subject of consent as Schwartzman is bringing her unwavering eye to the problem, it makes it all the more painful that we seem even further away from solving the issue then we were on that fateful August night in Ohio seven years ago."

Frank Scheck Frank Scheck is an American film critic. He is best known for his reviews in the ''New York Post'' and ''The Hollywood Reporter''. He formerly edited ''STAGES Magazine'' and worked as a theater critic for the ''Christian Science Monitor ''Th ...

of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "Difficult to watch, but essential viewing."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, m/roll_red_roll
Alexandria Goddard website (archived) - "Steubenville rape case" section
2018 films 2018 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about violence against women Rape in the United States History of women in Ohio Steubenville, Ohio Documentary films about Ohio 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films