Motherless Brooklyn
Warner Bros. | Release Date: November 1, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 10, 2019
Motherless Brooklyn is a curious near miss that can be both applauded and criticised for its boundless ambition. Read full review
60
EmpireKim NewmanDec 2, 2019
There’s quite a bit to admire in Motherless Brooklyn, but mostly in detail work — the hats, the cars, the join-the-dots conspiracy theory — but it doesn’t really catch fire as either a private-eye mystery or a study in Tourette syndrome savantry. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 1, 2019
Yet it’s rare that we get a movie this municipally minded and Chinatown-ish, and Norton invents new elements with a free hand, including a Harlem turf war, a skittering jazz undercurrent (the music is by Daniel Pemberton) and a love interest in Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Alec Baldwin, playing a powerful urban planner, makes for a ferocious Robert Moses stand-in. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 31, 2019
The high-mindedness of the movie, its showy conviction that its heart is in the right place, dulls some of its political insights. And its grandiosity undermines the ragged pleasures of the genre. Read full review
60
TheWrapCandice FrederickOct 30, 2019
Norton earns praise for taking on the gargantuan task of bringing this story to the screen, and pulling quadruple duty as actor-director-writer-producer, but Motherless Brooklyn seems more like a blueprint of a great film that lacks the nuance it needs to be truly impactful. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 12, 2019
It’s a heavy meal to digest, but this is a strong, vehement film with a real sense of time and place. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 31, 2019
Motherless Brooklyn is the kind of knotty, ambitious, character-rich, politically conscious entertainment the studios so rarely get behind anymore, you can’t help wishing it were better. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 31, 2019
Motherless Brooklyn is lovely to look at — the cast, in addition to their acting talents, all look great in ’50s styles — and I enjoyed the noir-y jazz of the dialogue. (“Everybody looks like everybody to me,” a bartender tells Lionel, who’s looking for someone in the shadows of a club.) But it’s easily half an hour longer than it needs to be, and it’s full of moments that don’t go anywhere. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 30, 2019
The upshot of all this, two hours and 24 minutes of vintage car chases, fire escape chases, punch-outs and puzzling over clues? “It’s NOT ‘Chinatown,’ Jake.” Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 10, 2019
Ultimately, frustration and fatigue prevail over the film’s intellectual acuity and political insight; neither is any true emotion ever forthcoming. This is odd and disappointing. Read full review
45
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 1, 2019
Motherless Brooklyn has all the markers of a good Oscar-season movie: a talented cast, worthy source material, a script loaded with complex social issues. Even so, it doesn’t add up to much. Read full review
42
The Film StageJosh LewisSep 13, 2019
Few films come out in any given year with creative choices as baffling as the ones made by Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerOct 31, 2019
Edward Norton mines political relevance in some areas of noir-drenched New York and completely ignores it in others. As a result, Motherless Brooklyn becomes Chinatown’s outshined, ugly stepbrother. Read full review
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