A Different Man
A24 | Release Date: September 20, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
NMEJames MottramOct 14, 2024
Different by name and different by nature, A Different Man is one of the most original films of the year. Not since the days of Charlie Kaufman, with his brilliant scripts for meta-movies Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Synecdoche, New York, has there been anything this bonkers. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 4, 2024
A Different Man mulls how cinema – and art more broadly – deals with disfigurement, but has even more fun holding its audience’s toes to the coals. Read full review
100
Total FilmJames MottramOct 3, 2024
A Different Man is in essence a meta-movie, one that cunningly examines issues surrounding beauty and artistic creation. Read full review
100
The New YorkerJustin ChangSep 19, 2024
Schimberg may have concocted a madly inventive thought experiment, but to say that A Different Man merely deconstructs itself would miss how completely and satisfyingly it comes together. It’s a thing of beauty. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubDrew GillisApr 11, 2024
A Different Man prioritizes laughs over proselytizing. There is inherent humor in the absurdity of the situation—which takes a momentary detour near sci-fi territory during Edward’s transformation—but Schimberg wrings laughs out of deftly staged awkwardness (though, thankfully, not cringe). Read full review
91
Original-CinThom ErnstSep 24, 2024
Schimberg’s film is a blend of low-level science fiction and mid-range body horror, though it’s body horror with a social conscience. It’s remarkable viewing, even as it distills its theme into a well-worn message of resilience that’s idealized rather than realistic. Read full review
91
The Film StageJake Kring-SchreifelsJan 26, 2024
A Different Man is a loaded story––filled with plenty of passed detours and dark alleys––and it can start to feel a bit punishing by the end, where Schimberg struggles finding a natural resolution. But maybe that’s the point. This movie feels itchy because these are messy, undefined, unresolved topics. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 22, 2024
By refracting Brian De Palma’s self-reflexiveness and the Coen brothers’ mordant fatalism through the prism of his most personal obsessions, Schimberg creates a house of mirrors so brilliant and complex that it becomes impossible to match any of his characters to their own reflections, and absolutely useless to reduce the movie around them to the stuff of moral instruction. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicDina KaurOct 1, 2024
This is one film I think you should remain seated for as the dark comedy and psychological thriller will leave you feeling better about yourself in the end. Read full review
90
SlashfilmJacob HallSep 24, 2024
This is a great time at the movies, the kind of dark comedy that plays to the crowd and the kind of pseudo-thriller that keeps you guessing as each poor decision made by its lead character introduces a new wrinkle in the ongoing spiral of drama and recklessness. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 20, 2024
The Kafkaesque reversal-of-fortune humor that follows — centered on how outgoing, beloved Oswald’s mere presence pours salt on Guy/Edward’s identity crisis — is as shrewdly conceived a comic bad dream as we’ve gotten since the heyday of “Zelig”-era Woody Allen or Charlie Kaufman (whose film “Synecdoche, New York” this feels like a cousin to). Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonSep 19, 2024
There’s some John Carpenter in this film, and some Woody Allen, and some John Cassavetes, and a healthy dose of Charlie Kaufman-style surreality. The result is shrewd, and fantastic, and something all its own. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 22, 2024
A movie that’s about—and asks its lead to literally and figuratively wear—masks, A Different Man is a multifaceted meta mind-melter. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 22, 2024
Some people will always want what they do not have, but it is hard to imagine anyone feeling short-changed by such a tonally rich, thematically ambitious film. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 2, 2024
While the ending loses steam as “Different Man” gets in its own bizarre head, the film maintains a certain heady, psychological trippiness. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 27, 2024
With a crucial performance from Adam Pearson to complement Stan’s fine work, the film is well worth seeing. It is, in fact, a serious joke about the act of seeing. Read full review
88
Paste MagazineKatarina DocalovichApr 2, 2024
A Different Man is a major work—even as it shapeshifts from Cronenberg to Kaurismäki, developing into new territory at every turn, Schimberg never loses sight of his central questions: What makes us who we are? What does it mean to be a good person in this weird but beautiful world, surrounded by other people? Read full review
88
Slant MagazineMarshall ShafferFeb 23, 2024
The film’s overarching dramatic irony leaves one to ponder the deliberately discomfiting question of whether it’s possible to extricate the experience of disability from the way spectators define its essence. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJan 16, 2025
Yes, there’s a sermon of sorts at the center of “A Different Man.” But the message arrives post-movie, thanks to a narrative that is consistently compelling in its novelty, and twin performances—by Messrs. Stan and Pearson—that really do get under the skin. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 10, 2024
A Different Man layers idea onto idea, then inflates them to the point of satirical absurdity. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeOct 3, 2024
A welcome oddity. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongOct 3, 2024
Although A Different Man slightly runs out of steam in its second half, it’s an effectively atmospheric and idiosyncratic thriller, deftly examining the patronising attitudes that prevail regarding difference and disability, and the knotty topics of authorship and entitlement to other peoples’ stories. Read full review
80
EmpireIana MurrayOct 2, 2024
Come to this clever satire for Sebastian Stan’s radical transformation, beyond the prosthetics, but stay for Adam Pearson’s remarkable performance as a bona fide matinée idol. Read full review
80
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 13, 2024
Aaron Schimberg’s head-twisting, heart-piercing psychological thriller stars a never-better Sebastian Stan as a facially disfigured actor who has an operation to remove his scars and finds he can't hide the gloomy, self-loathing introvert that lingers in his DNA. Read full review
80
IGNAlex StedmanFeb 2, 2024
A Different Man is a twisted, sometimes grueling, frequently darkly funny ride with standout performances from Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 22, 2024
With A Different Man, Schimberg attempts — and mostly succeeds, with deliciously awkward results — to cram a lifetime of thoughts about beauty and ugliness, attraction and disgust, identity and performance into a postmodern meta-film mold that few (apart from Charlie Kaufman, perhaps) have managed to make tolerable. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJan 22, 2024
The story’s twists and turns maintain our interest throughout, with the narrative taking on a cleverly deconstructed play-within-a-film format reminiscent, at times, of Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrSep 27, 2024
An existential black comedy delivered with flair and a steady gaze — and two remarkable performances at its center — it mucks about in themes of identity and exploitation, perception and personality, fate and foolishness. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 25, 2024
It’s a film that works almost too hard to surprise us; some late developments are so absurd they lessen the impact of the main story. Still, Schimberg is a unique talent who excels at delivering provocative work. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 20, 2024
Part of what’s refreshing about “A Different Man,” though, is that it never condescends to Edward—never treats him as magical or noble, the way many films do in depicting characters with disabilities. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckSep 19, 2024
It’s an absorbing ride, and Schimberg works with confidence and brio. Read full review
75
TheWrapKristen LopezJan 22, 2024
A Different Man is a fascinating exploration of humanity with Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson being a team I want to see reunite in other works. The climax is a tad underwhelming but overall it’s a rollicking ride worth experiencing. Read full review
70
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 23, 2024
Schimberg’s exploration of identity and representation has the best of intentions, but the more audacious aspects of A Different Man often overwhelm the interesting themes at the center of the film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganJan 23, 2024
The final result is a messy but memorable effort, with Stan, Pearson, and Reinsve giving performances that are anything but skin-deep. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 11, 2024
Schimberg’s film goes for predictable emotions and rests on a fairly predictable formula. But what transpires in the middle to late acts is surprising, even as it feels as contrived as the shy-deformed-man who quickly becomes a master salesman transition. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 2, 2024
A Different Man spins out of control in its final act, but still leaves you pondering its questions. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 10, 2024
There are a lot of ideas churning around in this intriguing but scattershot picture, which veers into the surreal and macabre in its quest to explore themes of identity, authenticity and the nature of beauty. Not all of it lands successfully, particularly in the increasingly agitated and fragmented second half. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 20, 2024
It’s worth seeing A Different Man for the two performances at its heart, given by Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan. Read full review
60
Time OutElizabeth WeitzmanSep 19, 2024
Is Schimberg most interested in Cronenbergian horror? Psychological thrills? Darkly comic surreality? He’s gotten so much right that one more pass at the script could have pushed him to where he wants to be. But without a rock-solid core, A Different Man eventually succumbs to an insurmountable crisis of identity. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 19, 2024
Pearson, as happy-go-lucky charmer, also brings a burst of much-needed vitality to this droll but overly thought-through film. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 17, 2024
It’s a film whose tone and meaning can’t be nailed down. Read full review
58
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 22, 2024
The third act often feels more like a cinematic exercise than a filmmaker who has something to say. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 2, 2024
While A Different Man attempts to be a thought-provoking work some of the time, it’s not as deep or as profound as it aims to be. Read full review
40
The GuardianAdrian HortonJan 23, 2024
A Different Man is a slog, made worse by the fact that it seems to mistake darkness for insight. Read full review
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