Much like the Paradise Lost films, West of Memphis chronicles the history of the imprisoned men all the way up to their release in 2011 through interviews conducted with lawyers, judges, journalists, family members, witnesses, and the West Memphis Three themselves. West of Memphis focuses on Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Stevie Branch (one of the murder victims), as a potential suspect, due to physical evidence linking him to the crime, a history of violent behavior, and his lack of an alibi for the time the murders were committed, as well as damaging statements made by his ex-wife, former neighbors, and, most recently, his own nephew, who claims Hobbs confessed to him. The film reveals that, inexplicably, Hobbs was not interviewed by police at the time of the murders.[3][5]
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, film critic Joe Morgenstern described West of Memphis as "a devastating account of police incompetence, civic hysteria and prosecutorial behavior that was totally at odds with a vastly persuasive body of evidence uncovered in a privately funded investigation". He wrote that director Amy Berg "has a dramatist's eye for what was irretrievably lost — the innocent lives of the children, plus 18 years of three other innocent lives. And she saw, equally well, what was there to be gained: dramatic new insights into an inexorable progression from random arrests through groundless supposition, fevered conjecture and flagrant perjury to official disgrace in a supposedly airtight case."[8]
Film critic Philip French of The Observer called West of Memphis "riveting", and a "shocking indictment of the American criminal justice system and a tribute to the dedication of selfless civil rights lawyers and their supporters from all over the world".[9]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" and wrote that it "casts a hypnotic spell all its own. It artfully sketches out the events for anyone who's coming in cold, but basically, its strategy is to take what we already know and go deeper. [...] West of Memphis goes after another possible suspect, Terry Hobbs, who was stepfather to one of the victims and who has denied any involvement. In doing so, the film reframes the story's terrible darkness, even if it can't give us the closure we hunger for."[10]
Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a perfect four star rating, writing: "Do we need a fourth film? Yes, I think we do. If you only see one of them, this is the one to choose, because it has the benefit of hindsight."[3]
