Dead Man's Wire
| Release Date: January 9, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJan 9, 2026
Through the ending and postscript, which leave you unsure how to feel about what you’ve seen but eager to discuss it with others, this is a nostalgia trip of the best kind. Read full review
91
Original-CinChris KnightJan 16, 2026
Just strap in and let Skarsgard’s chain-smoking, proudly sober, pushed-too-far little guy take you on a helluva ride. Read full review
88
The Travers TakePeter TraversJan 9, 2026
Love that Gus Van Sant has crafted his true-crime hostage drama in the grand 1970s tradition of Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon.” Bill Skarsgard drops his Pennywise psycho clown persona to make his unmasked mark as an actor. And does he ever. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyMar 19, 2026
Working from a blackly comic script by Austin Kolodney, Van Sant fashions a shouty standoff in the tradition of Network and Dog Day Afternoon. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 16, 2026
Skarsgård makes the character a little sad, a lot delusional but never a joke. And he makes “Dead Man’s Wire” an underrated gem not to sleep on. Read full review
80
ColliderDavid CaballeroJan 9, 2026
Dead Man's Wire is a successful throwback to the classic crime stories that once dominated cinema. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 6, 2025
There’s a subtle, astute parable here about the media’s role in the shaping and streamlining of public morality – happily wrapped in a romp. Read full review
80
Screen DailyNikki BaughanSep 4, 2025
Director Gus Van Sant turns this fascinating true crime story into both an entertaining period drama and an evergreen tale of ordinary men pushed into desperate acts. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 4, 2025
Dead Man’s Wire is a timely, entertaining reflection on the way the offer of the American Dream often tends to be snatched back. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 4, 2025
The personae and performances of Pacino, Domingo and Myha’la complicate the psychopathic nastiness of the affair, and create something surreal and bizarre and often hilarious: a display of, not heartlessness, exactly, but a shrewd professional sense that pity and fear were emotions that could only benefit the kidnapper. Read full review
75
Washington PostSonia RaoJan 9, 2026
Riveting and darkly comedic, the film nimbly conveys the tragedies of buying into the American Dream. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleJan 7, 2026
It plays a little loose with facts but the righteous rage of “Dog Day Afternoon” is present enough in Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” a based-on-a-true-tale hostage thriller that’s as deeply 1970s as it is contemporary. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 5, 2026
If “Dead Man’s Wire” has a weakness it’s that it doesn’t create an intense desire to find out how it all turns out. It compensates with dark humor and with a central performance by Skarsgård that’s fascinating. Read full review
75
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 5, 2025
Van Sant imagines this tale in a way that echoes Dog Day Afternoon: an unhinged and stranger-than-fiction fable about good intentions gone wrong. It’s kind of a hoot. Read full review
75
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferSep 4, 2025
It’s engaging to watch without requiring viewers to completely turn off their brains. Van Sant makes “Dead Man’s Wire” move like a well-oiled machine, even if he can only get so much mileage from an old vehicle. Simple, familiar pleasures are still pleasures. Read full review
75
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 2, 2025
In this age of Luigi Mangione, it’s a snapshot of violent anti-establishment resentment and fury that’s eerily timely—and smartly leaves its own perspective on its mayhem open for debate. Read full review
71
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiDec 13, 2025
Skarsgård is a captivating chaos gremlin, and Montgomery is — in an easily overlooked, but absolutely vital role — an exceptional foil. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 4, 2025
There’s no doubt that Dead Man’s Wire holds you. It’s Van Sant’s most vital piece of work for the big screen in some time. The movie plays, and part of it is that it triggers our anti-institutional anger. Read full review
70
Screen RantJack WaltersSep 4, 2025
Ultimately, Dead Man’s Wire succeeds as a comedy but often falters in its deeper social commentary. Though it lacks the critical bite that could make it one of Van Sant’s best, it sits comfortably among his most entertaining. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 4, 2025
It has plenty of gritty ’70s atmosphere (facial hair! Radio DJs!) and feels grounded in its time and place, but it also has a purposeful whiff of timeliness that tells us it’s as much about today as it is about 1977. Read full review
67
IndieWireKatie RifeSep 4, 2025
One does not hire Bill Skarsgård unless one is looking for a lanky, off-putting weirdo. But Skarsgård does a good job of making his character’s frustration and rising panic grounded and relatable. This helps immensely when we get to the finale, which complicates the us-vs-them narrative. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAlexander MooneySep 21, 2025
If Dead Man’s Wire adds up to less than the sum of its vicarious jolts and sardonic jabs, it’s perhaps a result of Gus Van Sant’s style fading into the background. Read full review
63
ObserverSiddhant AdlakhaSep 15, 2025
The unfolding action is never farcical enough to make the film satirical or outright funny, but it’s also never imbued with enough historical gravity to truly matter. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyApr 2, 2026
Where in the public consciousness is the line drawn between thief and Robin Hood? Van Sant may ask the question, but his vision’s too narrow to answer it. Read full review
60
Little White LiesLeila LatifMar 24, 2026
Van Sant directs with a steadiness that occasionally borders on pastiche. He resists sensationalism, which is no small feat given the bombastic source material. The hostage sequences are gruellingly tense, but the film never quite finds a rhythm beyond escalation, monologue, negotiation, repeat. For a story and subject this strange, the filmmaking flourishes are conservative. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentMar 16, 2026
Van Sant’s previous historical fictions have been more incisive, but this is a tense crime thriller, with a solid new addition to Bill Skarsgård’s rogues’ gallery of scumbags. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureCody DericksSep 4, 2025
while there are certainly entertaining moments throughout, Van Sant’s interpretation of this forgotten true crime story is simply not as exciting as it should be – and clearly wants to be. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubAndrew CrumpJan 8, 2026
This is Van Sant’s Dog Day Afternoon moment. Judged solely by Skarsgård’s scenes, Dead Man’s Wire makes for an insightful and tense portrait of its subject. But judged by the limits of its perspective, the film is narrow to the story’s detriment. Read full review
50
The RevealScott TobiasJan 16, 2026
Dead Man’s Wire is a curious shrug of a movie, especially from a director like Gus Van Sant, who has picked up some ho-hum work-for-hire assignments in the past, such as Finding Forrester or Promised Land, but usually puts some more spin on the ball. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Saffron MaeveJan 16, 2026
The film shifts its tone like an evasive minnow, at once circling the familiar visual grammar of true crime media and the slapstick fancies of a buddy comedy. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 12, 2026
Unfortunately, the film only hints at its larger ambitions and leaves them undeveloped. The story is told mainly methodically, sometimes deftly, but with little verve, relying on a generalized sensitivity that never approaches imaginative curiosity. It holds attention as a yarn but doesn’t build the incidents of its plot into a world view. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJan 9, 2026
The result is a faintly comic curio that hurtles along without much impact. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJan 8, 2026
For all the effort that Van Sant and his team put into making Dead Man’s Wire look like 1970s Indianapolis, its ability to really summon the spirit of the era only goes skin deep. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergJan 8, 2026
When Dead Man’s Wire ends with footage of the real Kiritsis and Hall, it is hard not to conclude that a much crazier, livelier film could have been made. Read full review
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