Flora and Son
Apple | Release Date: September 22, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 22, 2023
Heart and soul—those two concepts beaten to death by lyricists—suffuse every scene of this modest, perfect picture. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshSep 25, 2023
It’s almost unbelievable that Carney pulls off films like this, which could easily tip over into maudlin. Instead, the winning Flora and Son is an utterly irresistible emotional ear-worm. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 25, 2023
It’s catchy and touching, it weaves the music into the story with a spontaneity that can leave you laughing with pleasure, and it navigates an honest path from despair to belief, which is Carney’s disarmingly sweet calling card. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonSep 28, 2023
The perfect movie to curl up with on a rainy day, Flora and Son tells us that music is the tie that binds people together, whether they’re ex-lovers, potential partners, or a scared mother reaching out to her equally skittish son hoping he will reach back. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 27, 2023
Propelled by a funny, charismatic turn by Hewson (who infused such unpredictable energy in the terrific Apple TV Plus series “Bad Sisters”), Flora and Son is a feel-good movie that largely earns its sentimental uplift, one sick burn and soaring musical number at a time. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 22, 2023
Blending the hilarious and heartfelt, the tough and the tender, John Carney’s sweerheart of an Irish musical is something you’ll want to hold close. Read full review
85
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 27, 2023
If you can walk away from a movie with a tune in your heart and a bounce in your step, then it’s safe to say that the film clicked in just the ways that were intended. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeFeb 9, 2023
That’s the beauty of what Carney has created here, a film that wraps you in and absorbs you with its loveliness and charm, to a point that you don’t want to leave its presence. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandJan 24, 2023
Hewson never sees her as some kind of tarty punchline – neither does Carney, and neither will the audience. You know all that stuff about “strong female characters” who are also “flawed” or “human” or whatever other insane word salad Hollywood is still requiring of its female leads? Here’s a real one. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonSep 28, 2023
This is Carney’s saltiest ode to creative expression — and, peculiarly, his most relatable. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 26, 2023
It takes shortcuts to do it, but ultimately Flora and Son will make you happy. And what’s wrong with that? Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 22, 2023
Hewson confirms her capacity to fill every square inch of a screen. Kinlan deftly hints at the vulnerability behind performative aggression. Helped out by fine support from Carney stock company members such as Jack Reynor, Marcella Plunkett, Don Wycherley and Keith McErlean, the leads confidently bring home a smallish film with a sizeable heart. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJan 24, 2023
Flora and Son played more charming than cloying to me. It’s a nice movie about people who are mostly nice—deep down, anyway. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesJan 24, 2023
Hewson takes a flawed but good-hearted mess of a character and makes her sympathetic, likable and fully human. Read full review
80
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 24, 2023
Carney has this genre on lock. No other working filmmaker has consistently captured what he's able to with his movies, zeroing in on the way music can bridge emotional distances. Read full review
75
PolygonJoshua RiveraOct 6, 2023
Flora and Son excels in its humane yet prickly depiction of Flora’s relationship with motherhood. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonOct 2, 2023
As always in Carney’s films, the music is emotional and lovely, with instruments played by its actors. The songs feel like they’re improvised on the spot, and Dublin is as inviting of a setting as usual. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenSep 27, 2023
If Carney had wanted to dive into the darkness of this drama—and Hewson has the heavy eyelids to do it—he might have enabled her to give a powerhouse performance. This perhaps isn’t the great Flora and Son we might have wanted, but it’s the pretty good one we’ve got. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleSep 20, 2023
Flora and Son, like a B-side to Carney’s earlier hits, may sound a little like a tune you’ve heard before. But it’s sung with enough heart to have even the coldest cynic humming. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 16, 2023
It’s an adorable small-scale romance with music. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 25, 2023
With a lovingly crude sense of humor and finding the perfect star in Hewson to radiate sincere liveliness every moment she’s onscreen, Carney has crafted a winning tale of motherhood and music. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJason BaileyJan 24, 2023
If we’re being honest, Carney isn’t breaking new ground here, and I keep waiting for him to make a movie that will finally fully exhaust his Whole Thing. But Flora and Son is not that movie. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeJan 26, 2023
Hewson, gifted with a wealth of elaborately profane dialogue, is a force of nature. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 25, 2023
Flora and Son is energetic, easygoing, and charming. With a great cast, lovely musical numbers, and a stupendous lead performance by Hewson, Carney doesn’t disappoint. Read full review
68
Paste MagazineUrsula Munoz S.Oct 4, 2023
Luckily, Hewson’s grounded performance and Carney’s witty script largely succeed in keeping this treacly dramedy afloat. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisSep 28, 2023
While Hewson’s splashier performance energizes the film, it’s Gordon-Levitt who gives Flora and Son its sweetness and light. Read full review
67
TheWrapNicholas BarberJan 24, 2023
Flora and Son feels more like a scrappy demo tape than a polished album. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloSep 13, 2023
For a movie so driven by music, it’s unfortunate that its final number is somewhat of a mess, its lyrics weaker than the performances that led up to it. Tense situations quickly resolve themselves, and everyone in the makeshift group conveniently has a part to play. I only wish it felt more like music to my ears. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 25, 2023
The volcanically sweary dialogue doesn’t quite disguise the naivety of the feelgood trajectory, and the ending feels clunky, but this is a boisterous and disorderly charmer of a picture nonetheless. Read full review
60
EmpireJames DyerSep 22, 2023
A love story, but not in the way you think. Carney’s latest ballad to the musical arts stays in tune, with a stand-out central performance from Hewson. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 24, 2023
An immensely charming Hewson makes it all seem effortless, though, even as Carney’s manipulative string-pulling threatens to get a bit too forceful, an instinctive and quick-witted actor who drags the film’s sillier, flightier moments back to earth. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeSep 21, 2023
Flora and Son is far more invested in making its characters likable and cute rather than risking audience sympathies. Read full review
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