Critical response
The film has received four star reviews from a number of major outlets including The Guardian, [11] The Times, [12] The Financial Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Time Out. [13]
Editorial accolades have been largely positive with The Irish Times saying “Eugene Jarecki’s The Six Billion Dollar Man may be the most chilling film of 2025, not simply because of the notoriety of Julian Assange, its subject, but also as a clinical exposé of the elaborate machinery of state power, media hostility and private opportunism.” [14] Time Out noted that “Jarecki’s film, a conspiracy thriller in documentary clothing, provides a corrective to the public image of this deeply polarising figure… the American filmmaker [Jarecki] takes on – and down – a global system of power that should worry the hell out of us all." [15] The Guardian echoed this in saying “Jarecki’s army of eye-witnesses run the gamut from Naomi Klein to Pamela Anderson (a fan and frequent visitor) to the former president of Ecuador, while the film’s sprawling crime scene eventually straddles half the globe.” [16] The Film Verdict praises “The Six Billion Dollar Man is a masterwork and a near-masterpiece.” [17] Though Screen Daily says “…the film ultimately works better as a conversation-starter about the freedom of the press than as a layered portrait of the controversial activist.” [18] The Times concludes, "As far as the American director Eugene Jarecki is concerned Assange is a wronged and righteous hero and Jarecki’s meticulously researched, two-hour film argues that case convincingly." [19]
