Metacritic reviews

Ito’s presence propels the film; her passion, vulnerability, and resilient strength are the film’s most compelling components, as they should be, and it’s hoped that the closure she’s pursued finally found its way to her.

It seems to encapsulate a generation’s dreams and disappointments, torments and triumphs. Even if it takes place on the other side of the world, it’s still a story we all know when we see it.

It’s not an easy story to stomach, but in this staggering documentary playing in competition at Sundance, the journalist-turned-filmmaker crafts a stunning, effective tale of reclaiming victimhood and the fight for justice.

Without undue manipulation or sentimentality, Black Box Diaries pulls viewers’ emotions in sharp extremes that mirror the peaks and valleys of this hard-fought five-year case.

The result is a tough, harrowing work of self-portraiture in which it’s Ito’s own journalistic tenacity, as much as her personal determination and outrage, that leads her to go public with her story, despite enormous pressure to do the opposite.

It’s a brave, uncompromising debut.

A remarkably intimate non-fiction exposé about the ordeals women suffer after being sexually assaulted—and the strength, courage and togetherness required to change that status quo.

Its devastation is familiar. But because filmmaker Shiori Itō is both survivor and journalist, and recorded her own investigation into her assault in real time, the documentary becomes a thrilling testament to her exceptional, tenacious agency in the face of a hostile world.

The film leaves on a razor’s edge between hope and despair, encouraged on the one hand by the passion with which justice is being demanded and, on the other, depressed by the widespread indifference with which these demands are met.

Ito is undeniably brave, but this autobiographical doc could stand to be a bit less shiny.