The website's critical consensus reads, "Generation Wealth has admirable aims, but never manages to focus long enough to put together the type of cogent argument made by director Lauren Greenfield's earlier works."

[9] Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com wrote that the film was "a stunningly deeply resonant documentary about notions as seemingly obvious as the value of love over wealth itself.

"[10] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times wrote, "Darting from micro to macro and back again, squashing obscene consumption against child beauty pageants and ruinous debt, its structure makes for an unfocused thesis," adding that "the through line...

"[1] Joseph Walsh of Time Out gave it four out of five stars, writing that the film "lays bare society’s obsession with affluence and excess with scalpel-sharp insight" and "makes for bleak and compelling viewing.

"[11] Joe Morgan's Wall Street Journal review stated that the film was "all over the place, to the point of inducing numbness or suffocation.