The Truth
IFC Films | Release Date (Streaming): July 3, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJul 1, 2020
Deneuve has fun with her best role in years. Read full review
91
Original-CinLiam LaceyJul 8, 2020
Starring two grande dames of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, The Truth is a mistress-class in the art of French close-up acting, from the twitch of a dismissive eyebrow to a pout of disappointment. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonApr 7, 2022
Funny, wry, emotionally potent, and like most films by Hirokazu Kore -eda (“Shoplifters,” “Nobody Knows,” “After Life”) operates on multiple levels—usually some kind of domestic tragicomedy under which lies profound existential disquiet. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 2, 2020
Kore-eda furthers his storied reputation as an artist humanely attuned to what transpires between those who know each other all too well. Read full review
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 28, 2019
Kore-eda’s first film made outside his native Japan, it’s a fascinating exploration of the fallibility of memory and of how the truths we tell ourselves so frequently outweigh an empirical certainty. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 16, 2020
Using compassion and the slightest touch of syrup, Kore-eda brings his characters to a place where they realize with shock that they’re finally on the same page. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJul 3, 2020
The Truth doesn’t have very much of a plot. What little there is serves as a clothesline for its two excellent leads to hang their performances out to dry. Read full review
85
CNNBrian LowryJul 10, 2020
Playing an aging star estranged from her daughter might not seem like a major stretch, but Deneuve and Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda (whose "Shoplifters" took top honors at the Cannes Film Festival) spin that premise into a cinematic breath of fresh air. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyMary SollosiJul 3, 2020
Because if anyone can handle The Truth, it's Deneuve. The French icon is as magnetic as ever, and she inhabits Fabienne (which is, incidentally, her own middle name) effortlessly, with a sly self-awareness that never undermines the fiction. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 28, 2019
This wise and diaphanous little drama finds Kore-eda once again exploring his usual obsessions, as the man behind the likes of “Still Walking” and “After the Storm” offers yet another insightful look at the underlying fabric of a modern family. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 2, 2020
This isn’t a great film, but it’s a work of great subtlety with artfully smudged boundaries — “Rashomon” in modern dress and watercolors. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 2, 2020
The story gradually emerges through an accretion of details and personal dynamics, often in families that stand in for the larger world. Things happen quietly or offscreen. The drama is measured out in sips, in gazes, gestures, silences, off-handed humor and shocks of brutality. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 2, 2020
It’s the essential conflict between mother and daughter that brings The Truth into Kore-eda territory, where life is always a delicate balance. He’s lucky to have Deneuve and Binoche tempering the verbal fireworks with a tenderness that that allows for pain, regret and the hard-won knowledge that they must both face the truth to move on. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 31, 2020
This movie is an absorbing serio-comic flourish. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlex SavelievNov 17, 2019
Don’t come in expecting high-stakes melodrama, soul-twisting resolutions, or fiery exchanges. This is one of those meditative films about a fragment of life, wherein we find distinct familiarities. It demands that we slow down and appreciate its leisurely pace, its elegiac/humorous tone – and primarily, its lead performance. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 28, 2019
From first shot to last, it’s a film of high wit and confidence and verve, an astonishingly fluid and accomplished act of boundary-leaping. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 15, 2020
No, there’s little in the way of fireworks and it’s not “stop the presses” news that film actresses have to be fiercely self-absorbed. But a film-lover’s movie like The Truth gets at the vulnerability that comes with that in cute but cutting, sly and subtle ways. Thank Deneuve for that. “I could play this role dead drunk!” Damn right she could. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 3, 2020
The Truth is layered and offers a treat for those who savor acting on the highest level, but it is a step down from his best films and may hold its strongest appeal for those who label themselves cineastes and art house movie-lovers. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesJun 30, 2020
The result is a film—Kore-eda’s first outside of his native country and language—that feels almost aggressively low-key, low stakes and notably less urgent than the filmmaker’s earlier works. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 10, 2019
Seeing the director’s usual style applied to a whole different culture provides fascination enough. Not surprising, maybe, but welcome. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 6, 2019
The tactility of earlier Hirokazu Kore-eda imagery has been traded for a softer, more luscious, nevertheless melancholic dream world. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangAug 28, 2019
There’s the potential for melodrama, but despite the misleadingly grandiose title, The Truth is not in the business of the grand, tormented revelation. Instead, it’s an accretion of little moments, often very funny, sometimes a little sad, but always embedded in the reality of these sharply drawn, idiosyncratic characters. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 5, 2020
Perhaps a filmmaker whose powers were less orderly, less morally driven to soothe and pacify, could have pushed Fabienne—and Deneuve—to tragic and stylistic extremes that would have rendered the film’s reconciliations as mighty as its conflicts. Instead, he offers half a film of magnificent fragments. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 16, 2020
Despite these shortfalls, there’s much to relish here. To play a guy like Hank, who must resign himself to being second or fourth fiddle, is a tricky task, but Hawke pulls it off in the quiet style that he has made his own. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLee MarshallAug 29, 2019
A very European film of charm and wit that hits the occasional emotional high note, and sees Catherine Deneuve embracing her tastiest role since Potiche with verve and gusto. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 28, 2019
Deneuve's slyly self-satirizing performance ... ensures that The Truth remains a pleasurable entertainment. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 1, 2020
While the performances are total delights, there remains the nagging feeling that Kore-eda is not working at his peak. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 6, 2020
The Truth possesses the observational power and intimacy we would expect from a Kore-eda work, and we recognize the quiet cadences of the director’s storytelling, but the film also has an uncharacteristic air of desperation and insistency. Everything — every scene, every line of dialogue — feels like it’s working toward a point. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMar 31, 2020
The parallels drawn between Fabienne’s life and the stories she’s drawn to are a little on the nose. “What matters most is personality! Presence!” she declares, determined not to fade into obscurity. Deneuve’s luminous performance ensures she won’t. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleAug 30, 2019
The truth is that The Truth is an above-average French comedy and Kore-eda has succeeded in a finely wrought act of ventriloquism and diva worship. But the Japanese director’s fans can be forgiven for thinking above average is not good enough for such an accomplished filmmaker. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 28, 2019
The film defaults to gentle comedy too often, and feels afraid to dig deep enough into its underlying themes to draw blood. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksAug 28, 2019
It’s handsome, it’s amusing, it knows exactly where it’s going. All that is missing is that crucial fifth gear. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloJul 5, 2020
It’s good to see Kore-eda try to stretch himself a little, and The Truth demonstrates that his talent can survive on foreign soil. But there’s not as much powerful emotional veracity to it as one might hope. Read full review
50
The Film StageC.J. PrinceSep 7, 2019
No matter how strong the performances or how assured the direction may be, The Truth can’t shake how, on a writing level, Kore-eda is out of his element. Read full review
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