Fingernails
Apple Original Films | Release Date: October 27, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
11
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisNov 2, 2023
This gently humorous movie operates so smoothly you may not notice its subversiveness. Read full review
90
IGNRafaela Sales RossOct 19, 2023
Love is put to the test in Greek director Christos Nikou’s Fingernails, a sleek sci-fi film about a near-future where couples can scientifically test their love by removing one of the titular body parts. Read full review
80
EmpireElla KempNov 3, 2023
Moving and convincing as a case for romantic anxiety being the most isolating thing in the world. Fingernails is funny until it’s not: deeply romantic from the top of your head to the end of your fingernails. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 3, 2023
Nikou’s film is wonderfully astute on love’s unruliness: it wants you to both delight in and despair of it, and have fun doing both. Read full review
80
Time OutKaleem AftabNov 1, 2023
Nikou’s film is brimming of humour and excellent ideas, but is mostly a rebuke to anyone who thinks algorithms and technology are the answer to human problems. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarOct 28, 2023
For some, Nikou’s deliberate intent to portray a subtly warped reality may read as forced. But there’s an endearing bizarreness to “Fingernails,” his first film in English, that allows him to grasp at some of the intricacies of the human condition, steeped in silences as much as heartfelt analysis. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSep 26, 2023
There will be blood, yes, but mainly there’s a well-written and beautifully performed investigation of yearning and the mysterious realm that apps and algorithms can only profess to quantify. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 25, 2023
A love story hinging on human chemistry as a disruptive force would fall to pieces if its stars didn’t have that very unquantifiable quiver of static between them. But Buckley and Ahmed play off each other exquisitely, gradually reflecting each other in motion and mien, each looking at the other with the kind of facially centered full-body want that no amount of dialogue can convey on its own. Read full review
78
The AtlanticShirley LiNov 9, 2023
For all its whimsy, Fingernails is delicately profound. Its characters aren’t making bold romantic moves; they’re interrogating their assumptions of what is ultimately an unknowable phenomenon. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 10, 2023
It has an optimistic charm all its own, as well as strong performances throughout—especially from White and Buckley. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsOct 16, 2023
The quiet soulfulness of Buckley, Ahmed, and White makes for a banquet of slow cinema, one that haunts more than shocks in its parsing of love, lust, and longing. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 26, 2023
Fingernails’ themes may be a tad trite, but the storytelling’s unfussy elegance helps sell Nikou’s message about the messy vitality of true love. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAndy HowellSep 21, 2023
The success of the film mostly rests on Jessie Buckley in the lead role and her chemistry with Riz Ahmed as her potential romantic interest. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerSep 26, 2023
There are interesting concepts at play in the ways Fingernails explores loneliness and desire. Notably, the test doesn't account for long-term compatibility but the more intangible presence of love. But the film doesn't go far enough in the ways it questions the science and accuracy of the test. Read full review
67
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 17, 2023
There are great ideas throughout Fingernails and strong filmmaker instincts, but it also feels like a film that should’ve gone just a bit deeper into this world, its love, and its ideas. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 2, 2023
Although engaging at times, Fingernails is ultimately frustrating. Read full review
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