Equity
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 29, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 28, 2016
Equity pulls off a difficult balancing act with an elegance that should not be underestimated. It turns its unflappable gaze on a maddeningly complex reality and transforms it into a swift, clear and exciting story. Read full review
81
The VergeTasha RobinsonJul 29, 2016
The film packs in so much material that it's bound to have dead ends and weak spots, but its confidence in its provocations is compelling. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 28, 2016
You don’t need to be a woman working in finance to get a shivery thrill—and possibly a few chills—from watching Equity, a modestly scaled but perceptive drama about an investment banker who just happens to be a woman. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 29, 2016
Equity takes us inside modern Wall Street in a unique and gripping manner. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJan 29, 2016
Equity is a smart thriller set in the corporate world that disguises its modest budget with an intelligent script and good set of hooks. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 27, 2016
What lifts Equity above ordinary corporate melodrama is its staunchly feminine perspective, and not only in its lead character. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 25, 2016
It’s fun to watch Samantha playing her sources like a teenager plays a video game — expertly, offhandedly — and fascinating to witness the machinations between Naomi and Erin, neither of whom ever tells the other what she’s thinking. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 11, 2016
An intensely intelligent, well-written, and mature exploration of the unwritten rules women have to follow if they want to succeed in high finance. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 11, 2016
In the end, what makes Equity an intelligent and honest movie keeps it from being a total crowd-pleaser. Read full review
75
TheWrapTricia OlszewskiJul 29, 2016
Whereas Meera Menon’s film portrays the pitfalls that often await women who work in a predominantly male business, it’s also overcharged with so much grrrl power that it could blackout an entire Wall Street block. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 28, 2016
To the credit of this scrappy, admirably femcentric film, crisply directed by Meera Menon from a tightly wound script by Amy Fox (with Reiner and Thomas also doing double-duty as producers), Equity refuses to paint a rosy picture of women at the top. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaJul 25, 2016
The film ultimately succeeds in offering a fresh female-centered perspective on its genre material. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 11, 2016
If there is a criticism to be made, it’s that Equity is just a bit too low-key to fully draw the audience in. The chiaroscuro lighting and thrumming mood music build tension slowly and surely, but never enough to make you inch forward in your seat. Just a smidgen of Gordon Gekko bombast might kick things up a notch. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 28, 2016
The story fits together too neatly and the characters remain ciphers, but scenes of news reports of the high-profile deals—in which the protagonists see themselves—evoke an eerie air of plausibility and alienation. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenJul 28, 2016
The screenplay by Amy Fox is mechanical, the plot more contrived than charged under Meera Menon’s lackluster direction. But as a study of endurance and self-preservation in the face of persistent double standards, the movie clicks. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 29, 2016
Equity is a smart Wall Street thriller which is most engaging when it’s exploring the obstacles facing its female protagonists specifically because of their gender. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 17, 2016
Equity is a movie about working women that was made by and financed by women, providing a backstory that’s almost as interesting as the movie itself. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 29, 2016
What makes Equity such a vital feminist film, even when its other qualities are often few and far between, is how defiantly it internalizes that idea. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyJoey NolfiJul 28, 2016
Unfortunately, Equity sometimes buckles under the weight of its self-imposed, gendered duty. In attempting to say so much about women vs. women in a cutthroat industry, it paints itself almost too seriously. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 27, 2016
Equity may not be the fanciest or flashiest of financial thrillers — more like off-brand David Fincher or Steven Soderbergh — but it gets the job done. Read full review
67
The Film StageEd FranklMay 20, 2016
Equity is more nuanced, if not as ferociously confidant as that 1987 Oliver Stone film, here focusing on the nitty gritty of a market launch of a social media-style security company. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 24, 2016
The script, from a story by actresses Thomas and Reiner, is fiercely feminine and adept at juggling conflicting agendas and “needs.” Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 11, 2016
The key problem is the figure of Naomi, clawing her way to the top and desperate to stay there. Gunn plays her as mightily determined and potentially abrasive. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJul 29, 2016
Good intentions do count even if the outcome is not perfect. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartJul 28, 2016
Ultimately, I found the story surrounding Equity — that it is a movie about women on Wall Street, financed largely by actual women on Wall Street — more interesting than the movie itself, but it does contain its share of memorable moments. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeJan 29, 2016
While the severity of the film’s environment convinces, the specifics of Amy Fox’s screenplay — tangled up in tech IPOs, post-Snowden security paranoia and venal investment banking practice — are less consistently persuasive. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 11, 2016
The role of investment banker Naomi Bishop seems right for Gunn, no question, and it’s one that she approaches with conviction. So why is it so hard to root for her, or for any of the characters here? Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 11, 2016
Equity isn’t perfect — far from it — but it’s an intriguing attempt at rebalancing a system that’s been dreadfully out of whack for far too long. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsAmy RoweJul 27, 2016
The always strong Gunn does her best with the very familiar, quickly paced storyline. Read full review
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