The Banker
Apple TV+ | Release Date: March 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 25, 2020
George Nolfi directs with a TV-movie straightforwardness and at two hours the film is overlong, but the story is an eye-opener and the central performances are terrific. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 4, 2020
This is a film brimming with essential truth about the events at hand, and it delivers an impactful but also entertainingly resonant message. It’s also a crackling good, emotionally satisfying, old-fashioned thriller, with readily identifiable heroes and hiss-worthy villains. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarly DarlingMar 4, 2020
Thanks to the three strong performances at its heart — especially that of a wisecracking Samuel L. Jackson (who’s also one of the producers) — The Banker often is as entertaining as it is enlightening. It’s “Hidden Figures” with redlining instead of rocket fuel. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 5, 2020
For good stretches, The Banker can be as dryly engineered as a loan application, but the galvanizing story it tells — like a last stand of rebel ingenuity before the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made discrimination unlawful — is a solid interest-earner. Read full review
70
IGNSimon ThompsonMar 4, 2020
An accessible, efficiently made but not necessarily invigorating look at finance, reality, and racial injustice in the U.S. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 4, 2020
Despite the recognizably daunting challenges in telling this long-arc story in an entirely coherent way, The Banker spins a surprising and engaging yarn pinned to central elements that made it hard to tell. Its lively, positive spirit helps it over any number of speed bumps, the social backdrops play to its advantage and the top-line cast members pull their weight and then some. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowryMar 6, 2020
The story chronicles a fascinating moment in the civil rights movement, without yielding quite the returns that it should. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMar 26, 2020
The Banker is a pleasant watch. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 19, 2020
It’s an earnest film graced with surprising glimpses of humanity amid persistent racist venality. The great value is in showing us a piece of history we don’t know but should, and as a terrific showcase for Mackie, Jackson, Long and Hoult. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMar 6, 2020
The Banker remains only serviceable. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 4, 2020
A handsome-looking if occasionally dull affair. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMar 31, 2020
Inspiring until the end if not entirely entertaining. Read full review
59
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMar 4, 2020
Mackie does a decent job of articulating his anger, and the filmmakers clearly care about the issues, but The Banker doesn’t take the narrative risks necessary to tell its story powerfully. Competence is all we get instead, and competence isn’t quite enough. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubLawrence GarciaMar 4, 2020
Just as it reduces Garrett’s character to a few tenacious traits, the film, in presenting his inspiring story, loses perspective on the broader picture. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMar 5, 2020
Apple's first narrative film is a breezy historical biopic that plays like BlackKklansman for math nerds, but it's too stodgy to add up. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesMar 5, 2020
The Banker is a sadly facile and largely surface level rendering of a profoundly complex problem that deserves more attention. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 4, 2020
For a film about the struggles of a black man in America, The Banker spends an awful lot of time on a false white front. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 4, 2020
You may wish that you were reading about these events in The New Yorker, because the movie is so choked with neutral detail that it’s a little bloodless. It lacks fire. Read full review
30
SlashfilmJosh SpiegelMar 6, 2020
The Banker is like a shell of a movie, with a desperate lack of personality. The ingredients are there, down to the inevitable moment in the end credits when photos of the real people are placed alongside the actors playing them. Yet just as Apple TV+’s original series are lacking the element of dramatic excitement, so too is The Banker. Read full review
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