Adult Beginners
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: April 24, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonApr 23, 2015
Adult Beginners presents itself less as humor than as a study in Gen-X sociology and psychology. What happens when people raised in relative ease and who expect to live an even better life than their parents are left emotionally unequipped for reality? It might be touching. It might even be important. But it’s not exactly a lot of laughs. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 23, 2015
Dazzling on his recently concluded Kroll Show in multiple caricatures, Nick Kroll makes a savvy pivot to a role that allows for similar shades. Read full review
60
Village VoiceMarsha McCreadieApr 23, 2015
Married-in-real-life screenwriters Liz Flahive (Nurse Jackie) and Jeff Cox (Blades of Glory) can do poignant (not tossing family memorabilia) and clever (connecting Skype, hairspray, and stepparents), though the humor is intermittent. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 30, 2015
Katz is much more interested in observing Jake's newfound emotional core — and probably a bit too confident that a moist-eyed Kroll can turn this quite likable but slight family reunion into something more touching. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 22, 2015
Adult Beginners, by contrast, is mostly just… nice. Neither dramatic enough to qualify as drama nor amusing enough to completely succeed as comedy, it’s the kind of movie that coasts on pleasantness, content to elicit a few smiles before disappearing from memory banks. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 23, 2015
The three leads remain watchable, but only the sourness in Jake’s face when he moves into Justine’s house hints at the kind of true and complex emotions that, bromide by bromide, this movie insistently denies. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 23, 2015
A sometimes clever but ultimately clichéd comedy. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 23, 2015
The relative success or failure of Adult Beginners, directed with a steady, nonjudgmental hand by Ross Katz, depends on how funny you find Kroll. I find him funny-ish. Read full review
50
The DissolveNathan RabinApr 23, 2015
It does not seem like too much of a stretch to call Kroll a comic genius, but this kind of low-key sincerity does not suit his particular gifts. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickApr 22, 2015
The pleasant but forgettable Adult Beginners strains a bit too hard for a happy ending, and tends to lay on the schmaltz and metaphors (like the swim class that gives the film its title) with a trowel. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossApr 22, 2015
The story is littered with simplistic character arcs, obvious metaphors (the title comes from a swimming class), and big decisions involving the importance of work over family. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 21, 2015
Byrne and Kroll have a nice estranged sibling chemistry, not up to “The Skeleton Twins,” but in that ballpark. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsKatherine PushkarApr 23, 2015
The not-funny-enough dialogue can’t mask writer Kroll’s unoriginal plot. Read full review
40
TheWrapJames RocchiApr 23, 2015
There’s nothing here that actually digs deep enough into any of the films’ surface-level concerns — maturity, responsibility, parenting, siblinghood — to snap the movie out of its own slumber. Read full review
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