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Good Night, and Good Luck.
Good Night, and Good Luck. Image
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Metascore
80 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 126 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson
  • Summary: Good Night, and Good Luck chronicles that real-life conflict between esteemed television newsman Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and Senator Joseph McCarthy. (Warner Independent Pictures)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 41
  3. Negative: 1 out of 41
  1. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    100
    The biggest little movie of the year - and one of the best ever about the news media.
  2. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    60
    Clooney may be a specialist in embattled camaraderie--he helped revive "Ocean's Eleven," after all--but as in that caper remake, there's no depth to these characterizations, and Downey and Clarkson are squandered in a goes-nowhere subplot about their secret marriage.
  3. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    20
    Clooney has littered his film with such a high quantity of mistakes that it is hard to know where exactly to begin finding fault.

See all 41 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 72
  3. Negative: 11 out of 72
  1. grandpajoe6191
    7
    "Good Night, and Good Luck" isn't really a masterpiece as the critics claim, but it has it's sophisticated entertainment values thanks to the wonderful direction / performance of George Clooney and his crew.… Expand
    • 7 of 7 users said yes
  2. TonyB.
    5
    Perhaps well-intentioned and definitely well-acted, but good intentions and good acting do not always make a good film. The pretentious graininess of the cinematography becomes unsettling after a while as does the choppy editing. The musical interludes serve no purpose except to add several minutes to a relatively short film. George Clooney's performance did not deserve an Oscar, or even a nomination. Frank Langella was far superior to Hollywood's current golden boy. What was the point of the Robert Downey-Patricia Clarkson relationship? And finally, the scene in which someone reads Jack O'Brian's review is absolutely absurd, if not downright deceptive. O'Brian wrote for the Journal American, a NY afternoon daily which certainly would not have been on the street as early as the film says it was. Who knows what other discrepancies this overly rated film has?… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. ShannonP.
    3
    Way over-rated. This film presupposes that you know details about McCarthy and Murrow, and that you agree the former was pure evil and the latter a saint. It then invites you to wallow in the resulting pious sentiments. McCarthy may well have been a bad man and Murrow a good one, but this movie lacks the context necessary to show why. It's not so much a story as a self-indulgent exercise in political correctness.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 72 User Reviews

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