Emancipation
Apple TV+ | Release Date: December 2, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
23
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 30, 2022
Emancipation is a finely crafted, unflinching pursuit thriller about a slave seizing his freedom in 1860s Louisiana, and the first notable thing about it is that Smith is terrific in it. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 30, 2022
Anchored by an ultra-focused and unusually low-key Will Smith as Peter, Emancipation can be an intense and at times almost unbearable thing to watch, presented in meticulously composed, nearly black-and-white frames, desaturated to the point of Civil War photographer Matthew Brady’s grim battlefield tableaux. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 30, 2022
This is a strong, fierce, heartfelt movie. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleDec 8, 2022
Despite so many pieces that fail to fit together, Emancipation succeeds on entertainment alone. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 2, 2022
[Smith's] conviction carries Emancipation a long way, elevating what is essentially a B movie to the realm of something better than its outsize premise: a blunt instrument, maybe, but a brutally affecting one too. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNov 30, 2022
Emancipation, which is an otherwise well-tread period drama about the horrors of slavery, features more of Smith’s rich emotionality and laser-focused intensity that he’s uncovered late in his career and that won him the Oscar for last year’s “King Richard.” Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 2, 2022
Part of this movie’s power comes from its insistence that you look at the near-unbearable, that you confront slavery as a crime against humanity rather than the perverse myth of the so-called Lost Cause enshrined in countless paintings, books, films and statues. Read full review
67
Original-CinJim SlotekDec 7, 2022
A slave-on-the-run movie that uses every bit of its star’s modest acting ability and ticks all the award boxes, Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation would be a shoo-in in a world where Smith was not banned from the Oscars for 10 years. Read full review
64
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 8, 2022
Through it all, Smith’s performance grounds the horror in a place of courage, heart and soul. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 8, 2022
The heart of the matter gets lost amid the action-movie elements – with shades of "The Revenant” and “Glory" – though a dedicated Smith emotionally steadies the film through its rougher spots. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleDec 1, 2022
Fuqua’s film is often harrowing and gripping but also less nuanced and too narrowly confined in genre conventions than its real-life protagonist deserves. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 30, 2022
Despite the undeniable importance of this story and the obvious passion of those involved in telling it, Emancipation is more than anything a relatively standard-issue, period-piece action film — and that’s a shame, because we see glimpses of how it could have been something much more than that. Read full review
61
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerDec 5, 2022
The movie isn’t quite evocative enough to work as effective minimalism. It averages out a stripped-down Smith and the more florid filmmaking touches to land squarely in the middle of the road. Read full review
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