The Third Murder
Film Movement | Release Date: July 20, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
Though different in feeling from the Japanese writer-director's perceptive family tales like After the Storm, it has the same clarity of thought and precision of image as his very best work. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 2, 2018
It’s the work of a contemporary master who arrives at the philosophical by way of the playful, ironic and lyrical. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 19, 2018
The movie opens with the defendant bashing in the victim’s head and then burning the corpse. A trial seems almost beside the point, a view that the writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda goes on to dismantle with lapidary precision. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
The Third Murder is a captivating puzzle. Read full review
80
Screen DailyDan Fainaru
Kore-Eda, writer, director and editor, an auteur in the full sense of the word, tunes his approach to the genre, but only up to a certain point. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonAug 2, 2018
A consistently absorbing, often gripping, sometimes muddled whydidhedoit (because we already know whodunit), The Third Murder moves along Kore-eda’s customary careful, incisive pace, yet manages to be, for the most part, a riveting legal thriller. Read full review
75
The PlaylistBradley WarrenJul 25, 2018
The Third Murder functions well as a topical genre detour for the acclaimed director, but a degree of incongruity between the demands of the procedural formula and Kore-eda’s usual languid pacing keep the film from reaching the upper echelons of his greatest work. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 20, 2018
It will likely fall through the cracks a bit between “After the Storm” and “Shoplifters,” but it’s worth the time for fans of Kore-eda, a group that seems to be growing every day. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJul 17, 2018
In The Third Murder, as in his other films, Hirokazu Kore-eda informs tragedy with a distinctive kind of qualified humor that's realistic of how people process atrocity. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 2, 2018
Kore-eda is too polished a filmmaker for The Third Murder not to be of interest, but its focus is finally too fuzzy to compel the way the best of the director's work does. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJul 19, 2018
The Third Murder may not be Kore-eda’s best work, but the film proves a satisfying challenge, a complex exploration of sin and righteousness in an amoral world. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 15, 2018
Where Kore-eda finds his languid but captivating pace is in the constant itch that there are no ways to quite make all of the pieces fit. Read full review
65
Film Journal InternationalDaniel EaganJul 19, 2018
Technically splendid but emotionally distant, The Third Murder will seem more like a detour than a destination for his fans. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn Bleasdale
Kore-eda has unquestionably added a new, intriguing angle to his meditation on family life in contemporary Japan. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
A harsh and largely unwelcome change of pace from Japan’s greatest living humanist filmmaker, The Third Murder finds Hirokazu Kore-eda abandoning the warmth of his recent family dramas (“Still Walking,” “After the Storm”) in favor of an ice-cold legal thriller that pedagogically dismantles the death penalty. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 19, 2018
The film essentially disintegrates before your eyes, with Koreeda displaying little of the quiet elegance he’s built his entire career upon. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJul 17, 2018
The film’s fourth murder involves the slow asphyxiation of the viewer’s patience. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis Harvey
Compelling enough while you’re watching it, frustrating then forgettable once it ends, this is a work that wouldn’t command much attention if it came from any other director. Coming from this one, it mostly intrigues as an unexpected if not terribly rewarding change of pace. Read full review
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