Genius
Lionsgate | Release Date: June 10, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 16, 2016
Even as I was rolling my eyes, I was digging just about every stylized visual flourish, every big performance, every overly dramatic confrontation featuring first-rate actors letting loose with unabashed gusto and veracity, even when they were bellowing lines stating the obvious. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedJun 8, 2016
Colin Firth is brilliant as the patient, uncompromising and introspective Max Perkins, and the explosive performance by Jude Law as the wild, unpredictable and tragic Thomas Wolfe is one of the greatest triumphs of his career. I was spellbound. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 10, 2016
I’m not the only one who was at least slightly taken aback, though, by a persistent quirk in the movie’s casting, which is that not one of the Lions of American Literature in this picture was played by, well, an American. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 9, 2016
For those interested in this rich period in American literature, it’s a treat. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineOleg IvanovJun 9, 2016
It makes a convincing argument for viewing Thomas Wolfe's work as a product of the excess and exuberance of the 1920s. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 9, 2016
Genius may be a bit stodgy and safe, but it tells a story of beauty — as it plays out in an improbably fruitful friendship, and as it’s discovered within vast expanses of raw language by a craftsman who was arguably an artist in his own right. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangJun 9, 2016
Your mileage will vary on Genius, depending on where you place Law’s performance on the irritating/entertaining spectrum and your tolerance for somewhat formulaic tales of creative ego and “The Price of Fame.” Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloJun 10, 2016
Director Michael Grandage hails from the stage. So does screenwriter John Logan, so where films about writers are often filled with raised eyebrows rather than raised voices, these guys actively encourage grand gestures. Like the characters, they are intoxicated — not just by jazz or bootleg liquor, but by words. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 22, 2016
When it’s Law reading aloud in his awful cornpone accent, it sounds like curdled grits. But when Firth narrates, low and measured, the prose springs to life. I wouldn’t call Genius inspired, but not for nothing it inspired me to pick up "Look Homeward, Angel" for the first time. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlex McCownJun 9, 2016
Genius may eventually be a little too comfortable with its own formula (unsurprising, considering its full-throated endorsement of Perkins’ traditionalist mien), but in its early going, it captures a little bit of the magic of artistic creation. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJun 17, 2016
Well-written, gorgeously shot, and expertly edited, the film is also an exasperating exercise in good intentions gone wrong. For all its strengths, Genius often trades in tiresome clichés. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoJun 16, 2016
The film is surprisingly light on conflict and definitely goes a bit heavy on period bromantic bonhomie. Even so, it’s an intriguing study of the personalities and torturous process behind some of the early 20th century’s great writing. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 16, 2016
Genius does a pretty good job of capturing the peculiar drama of the relationship between editors and writers, in this case some of the most revered in American letters. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 16, 2016
If you’re a literature junkie, and I cringe at typing the phrase because it sounds so quaint in a world of 140-character expressions of self, then the film has its fascinating moments. The performances aren’t really among them. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Marsha LedermanJun 16, 2016
Not nearly as smart as it should be. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 16, 2016
You wish Perkins would have shown up with his red pencil during the screenwriting stage, when he might have done some good. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 16, 2016
Genius, like most films about the literary life, has trouble dramatizing what’s involved and making us care. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 16, 2016
Neat and tidy and well-mannered and dull, and not even Colin Firth and Jude Law and Laura Linney and Nicole Kidman and some very sharp fedoras can enliven it. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 10, 2016
My worst fears were confirmed almost from the start. In order to inject some pep into the proceedings, Law has been encouraged to play Wolfe as a motormouthed rhapsodist who seems less inspired than unhinged. He’s exhaustingly exuberant. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 9, 2016
If Genius is a failure — and by the generally unilluminating standards of most mainstream movies about the creative process, I’m not entirely sure that it is — it succeeds in being a noble, even charming one. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJun 8, 2016
The movie — dutifully shot in shades of old-timey sepia — does get better as its staginess falls away, but far too much drama stays on the page. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 9, 2016
It’s dispiriting to see a movie about interesting real-life characters reduce them to clichés, making them less vivid, less fascinating, less charismatic than they must have been. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickJun 9, 2016
Jude Law gives arguably the worst performance of his career as Wolfe in Genius, the ham-fisted directing debut of noted British theater figure Michael Grandage, bombastically adapted by John Logan (“Gladiator’’) from a biography by A. Scott Berg. Read full review
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