Review - Orwell: 2+2=5
Directed by: Raoul Peck
Written by: Raoul Peck
Starring: N/A
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Rating: 4/5
Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 is a powerful, almost overwhelming documentary that treats George Orwell’s life and work not as historical artifacts but as living, breathing alarms. From its opening moments, the film radiates urgency. Peck draws a clear line between Orwell’s warnings and the political fractures of today, and the effect is both bracing and unsettling.
The film is part literary analysis, part biography, and part mirror held up to the modern world. Peck moves fluidly between these modes, stitching together Orwell’s life story with scenes of contemporary authoritarian drift. It is ambitious in scope and relentless in tone, but that relentlessness feels intentional. Peck wants the viewer to feel cornered by the material, to understand that the lessons of 1984 are not cautionary tales from a distant past. They are happening now.
Damian Lewis narrates as Orwell, and his voice adds a calm but firm authority that balances Peck’s more urgent flourishes. The combination works. It makes the documentary feel like a conversation across time, one where Orwell’s insights gain sharper edges the closer we get to the present day.
There are moments when the film feels too large for its own frame. Peck packs so much into the runtime that certain sections blur together, and the emotional intensity can feel overbearing. But the documentary becomes far more rewarding when you stop trying to parse every detail and instead let the momentum and dread wash over you. It is an experience more than a purely analytical work.
If the film’s argument is clear, its impact is even clearer. Orwell: 2+2=5 is a call to attention. A reminder that authoritarianism does not appear fully formed, and that the truths Orwell feared we would forget are, in fact, the ones we need most urgently now. It is an imposing film, but also an invigorating one, driven by Peck’s conviction and anchored by one of history’s most fascinating thinkers.
