Free State of Jones
STX Entertainment | Release Date: June 24, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
21
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 23, 2016
This is no history lesson, but it’s mainstream Hollywood entertainment that respects the history and seems to invite discussion and debate. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 23, 2016
Mr. Ross consulted some of the leading experts in the era...and has done a good job of balancing the factual record with the demands of dramatic storytelling. The result is a riveting visual history lesson, whose occasional didacticism is integral to its power. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJun 23, 2016
Instead of captivating us with swagger, McConaughey chooses to go grim and dogged. Director Ross does the same. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJun 23, 2016
Free State of Jones is enticingly difficult to chart. It’s anti-war, anti-plutocracy and anti-racist, but it’s also pro-Bible, pro-gun, anti-tax and sympathetic to the poor whites who usually get tagged as racist. Its hero is an avowed Republican named Newt. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 23, 2016
The result is rather a mess, but it’s an honorable one, and very much worth wrestling with. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 22, 2016
Free State of Jones is an extraordinarily ambitious film, and for that reason, it’s not perfect. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 22, 2016
The movie remains quiet and deliberate, a synonym for “boring” in some minds (though not mine). In the end, it becomes an allegory for the times in which we live. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczJun 23, 2016
The film gets predictable and loses its firm grip a third of the way in. Too bad, since the film directed and co-written by Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games,” “Seabiscuit”) gets off to a bang-up beginning. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 24, 2016
In supporting roles, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Rachel, the equally valiant house slave Newton makes his common-law wife, and Mahershala Ali as Moses, the leader of the renegade slaves, provide some powerful moments. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKimber MyersJun 23, 2016
Everyone here means well and wants to make an epic war film, but it lacks a narrative strong enough to make it essential viewing for those beyond the genre’s fans. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJun 24, 2016
Mixing elements from documentaries, biopics, war flicks, and Hallmark romances, Ross' film is a living history tour, but with gory special effects and a smoldering smattering of sex appeal. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireJun 24, 2016
As inherently astonishing and powerful as this little-known episode is, it has not been well-served by Ross’ lumpy, ill-conceived script, which ends up wasting Matthew McConaughey’s terrific lead performance and other strong acting contributions. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesJohn HartlJun 23, 2016
Unfortunately, it’s so ambitious that it’s constantly straining to find a focus. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 23, 2016
Ross keeps his camera in McConaughey’s face, too. Every dirt stain, every twitch, every glower, wink and wince, is hard to miss. It’s not a bad performance, but it is an absurdly busy one. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 23, 2016
Aspires to greatness but fumbles badly. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 23, 2016
Ross' smooth, steady film is just interesting enough to make you wish it were a lot grittier, and better. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 29, 2016
Writer-director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) knows how to please crowds, so there's fascination in his consistently wrongheaded impulse to add more historical details: lengthy scenes of exposition, even a leap decades into the future for a courtroom drama involving Knight's persecuted offspring. He's lost sight of the powerful drama at this story's heart, about the ennobling swirl of momentous events. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesJimmy GeurtsJun 23, 2016
Anyone visiting Free State of Jones merely hoping to learn more about an interesting anti-slavery rebellion will likely come away sated, but those looking for an exciting, vital piece of filmmaking will have to wait for another opportunity. Read full review
55
TheWrapRobert AbeleJun 20, 2016
That you may learn a good deal about an unusually driven man, but never quite feel emotionally connected to him, means Ross has hit a workmanlike middle, crafting a handsome textbook more than a blood-pumping portrait. Read full review
50
The Film StageJordan RaupJun 23, 2016
Free State of Jones has a story worth telling, it just doesn’t know how to effectively do so. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 23, 2016
Ross may not be a great director, but he has written some very good screenplays, none of which sprawl out like this one. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 23, 2016
As gratifying as it is to see forgotten history brought to light, it’s disappointing, too: There’s an epic story to be told within Free State of Jones, but this white-knight tale isn’t it. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 23, 2016
Free State of Jones is a well-intentioned slog through a potentially fascinating bit of Civil War history, brought to life only by Matthew McConaughey’s performance, and then only occasionally. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 22, 2016
As it is, Newt Knight, the forward-thinking white liberal, is the only character with whom we might connect. And that’s a shame because this compelling episode of American defiance is so much richer than that. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBilge EbiriJun 22, 2016
Diligent and informative but also fragmented and inert, it plays like a series of scenes and notes for a longer, more fleshed-out movie. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeJun 22, 2016
After its bracing opening, the film begins to indulge the worst impulses of well-meaning liberal cinema. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernJun 22, 2016
Ross wants to shake up the format­—notably with a few scenes set 85 years after the war—but like so many directors who have tackled ­historical social issues before him, he confuses noble, cornball sermonizing for art. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 21, 2016
A compelling and little-known story of the Civil War period is studiously reduced to a dry and cautious history lesson in Free State of Jones. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 20, 2016
For all the ravaged surface appeal of McConaughey’s performance, the character is a little too good to be true, but then, that’s just the sort of movie Free State of Jones is. It’s a tale of racial liberation and heroic bloodshed that is designed, at almost every turn, to lift us up to that special place where we can all feel moved by what good liberals we are. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 20, 2016
Although occasionally stirring, the film rarely rises above the level of intriguing anecdote, resulting in a deeply drab drama enlivened somewhat by Matthew McConaughey’s empathetic performance. Read full review
42
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJun 22, 2016
On top of trying to be a Big, Important Film, Jones is also meant to be a showcase for McConaughey’s post-Oscar relevance as a dramatic actor, and he turns in a solid but unmemorable lead performance. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 20, 2016
Too robust to sink into the rhythms of a character study, but too financially limited to tell a story that matches the sweep of its director’s vision, Free State of Jones is a film divided against itself, and it cannot stand. Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt MaytumNov 2, 2016
After a visceral opening battle, endless speeches dull good intentions, and the characters lack depth. Read full review
40
EmpireDan JolinSep 26, 2016
Too long, arduous, lecturey and patience-testing for even the all-new Matthew McConaughey to rescue. Director Ross is apparently so swamped by a sense of historical righteousness he hasn’t noticed he’s smothered a decent story. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyJun 25, 2016
The last thing America needs is a historical movie correlating white people problems with those of people of color. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 23, 2016
Rather than focusing on the most fascinating part of the story -- that would be the establishment and subsequent dissolution of free state after which the film is named -- his film devolves into a series of belabored points, high-minded pontifications and audience manipulation. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 23, 2016
Strong acting often lends authenticity to writing that lacks it, and Mr. McConaughey is, to be sure, an exceptionally strong actor. Yet this screenplay is so arid in its didacticism, so pallid in its would-be passion, that it defeats his efforts and our involvement. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 23, 2016
Like the worst civics lesson, this movie bores away at you till your reactions are dulled. Read full review
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