Critics reviews

[Senna's] rise was meteoric, but this great documentary stays grounded, following his career path with steady introspection... There’s no way Asif Kapadia’s movie could fail to satisfy racing fans... The shaping of Senna’s story is so methodical and contained that it achieves a mournful scope.

Though the film immerses us in the details of Senna’s life and the world of Formula One for 104 thrilling minutes, we leave still wondering both who Senna was and how Formula One racing works. The first of these two things is ultimately unknowable... The second, on the other hand, is eminently knowable and something the movie could have done a better job of explaining.

"Senna" is a documentary that focuses on the popular image of the great auto racer and leaves us to ponder the mystery... [The film] lives entirely in the moment, [and] the race footage is thrilling.

[Senna] is two things: a discreet hagiography of the handsome, soft-spoken [subject]... and a compressed, esoteric slice of Formula One history during his 10-year ascendance... The film is a considerable feat of editing. The racing segments, consisting mostly of television clips and footage from mini-cams attached to cars, is frequently heart-stopping, despite its low resolution.

Senna could have been a by-the-numbers sports documentary... But Kapadia's method swerves around both pitfalls. The expert editing of the disparate audio and video sources provide more illustration than straight interviews ever could. Meanwhile, the compelling human drama... registers whether one has any prior knowledge of racing or not, and dispenses with the need to offer any lessons in the basics.

Audiences don’t need to be familiar with or give a damn about Formula One racing to get drawn into Senna, a finely wrought documentary... [composed] entirely out of archival footage.

Senna would be merely another in a long line of tragic-athlete documentaries were it not for the director’s compelling approach, which involves using only archival clips from the life of its subject... and narrating his tale through overlaid interview snippets from Senna and those who knew him.

A viscerally exciting and intellectually stimulating documentary... The brilliantly edited [Senna] is based entirely on footage drawn from hundreds of hours of newsreel, material from Formula One's own archives, much of it previously unseen, and from the Senna family's home movies.

Even if you couldn’t give two crank shafts about motor racing, Senna’s life remains a remarkable one and this film is a punchy, good-looking and clever tribute that should have an appeal far beyond a petrolhead crowd.

Fascinating, gripping and ultimately moving... The expertly edited archive footage offers a fascinating perspective on Senna, blending home movies with classic motor-racing shots, with film shot from Senna’s cockpit as his car speeds around the tracks especially thrilling.

What makes [Senna] especially compelling is the flawless editing orchestrated by director Asif Kapadia... [who] integrates endless hours of archival footage to construct a narrative that resonates and never breaks away from the momentum essential to the sport of driving -- and mimics Senna's relentless racing style.