A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, King Coal meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it has created. The film reshapes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking and transcends time and place, untangling the pain from the beauty, and illuminating the innately human capacity for imagination and change.
Robert Daniels, The New York TimesThe film is both a cumulative eulogy for a way of life and an examination of the climate crisis through witnessing the charred remains of these rural landscapes... [In] this melancholic, thoughtfully attuned cinematic essay, no mountain is more important than the people who are still confined to the claustrophobic tunnels of the past.