I Am Michael
Brainstorm Media | Release Date: January 27, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
TheWrapTricia OlszewskiJan 27, 2017
Franco’s fantastic here. He gives a fieriness to Michael as a gay advocate, then seamlessly slides into borderline madness as he starts accepting that the “voice” he hears is God’s. Michael’s confusion is palpable and intense. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJan 28, 2015
Anchored by a remarkably convincing performance by James Franco in the lead role, I Am Michael manages to explore Glatze's story without condemning him, even as it foregrounds the troubling nature of his path. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJan 26, 2017
Kelly, who is credited with Stacey Miller for the screenplay, is shrewd enough to keep the movie from being a dramatized op-ed piece about betrayal, instead making roiling uncertainty, loneliness and melancholy the marquee emotions. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJan 27, 2017
Kelly is finding his sea-legs as a director. Kelly spends equal amounts of time with Michael's pre-conversion life as he does post-conversion. The conversion itself is pretty well done, all things considered. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 26, 2017
This is a movie you might want to talk about afterward, so try to see it with other people. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayJan 25, 2017
Both of Kelly’s movies so far have shown the same strengths and weaknesses. He has an emotionally distant, observational approach, which makes the most outlandish behavior seem grounded and plausible, but which also makes moments of passion and confrontation come off a little flat. Read full review
67
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 26, 2017
The drama’s formal elements aren’t as compelling as the ideas it wrestles with, but it does make for one of James Franco‘s more accomplished and complicated performances. Read full review
60
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyJan 26, 2017
Kelly’s film is a competent feature debut – elegantly filmed and paced to keep viewers with Franco on an improbable ride. Yet the script views Glatze from a distance, never really entering his head to penetrate beyond the character’s own apologia for a bizarre life change. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 26, 2017
Franco's performance, particularly as he portrays the post-"conversion" Michael, is hard to read: the character drifts through the later scenes as if he'd been body-snatched. And, in some ways, he was. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijJan 28, 2015
Thankfully, the screenplay doesn’t portray the story in simple terms of good or evil, but that doesn’t mean that there’s quite enough nuance or insight to constantly elevate the material above the level of a well-made-but-TV-ready biopic. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 28, 2015
It cuts to the heart of the self-doubt, fear and prejudice associated with modern homosexuality. Read full review
58
HitfixDrew McWeenyJan 28, 2015
As a theatrical experience, I Am Michael is fairly forgettable, but it does manage to pierce in places, and it carries a cumulative charge that is bigger than any of the individual emotional pieces. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKatie WalshJan 28, 2015
While the performances are compelling, particularly Franco's, and the ideas batted around are worth grappling with, much of the storytelling is bogged down by extra details and exposition, and hampered by its unwillingness to take a position on the topic. An interesting story, but unfortunately, rather uninterestingly told. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 1, 2017
The performances are uniformly good and Kelly’s effort to tell an unbiased story is admirable, but I Am Michael ultimately delivers more in the way of talking points than drama. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoJan 26, 2017
James Franco is a stand-out in I Am Michael, but the film's specific story struggles to relate on a broader scale. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJan 26, 2017
While intellectually laudable, Mr. Kelly’s determined objectivity is so distancing that it takes an inherently intriguing story (based on a 2011 article in The New York Times Magazine) and sucks the life out of it. Read full review
50
Washington PostPat PaduaJan 26, 2017
I Am Michael, is an intermittently affecting — but not entirely convincing — conversion story. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonJan 26, 2017
Glatze's blog entries are read aloud by Franco, an infamous graduate-degree collector not so long ago, in a voice that suggests poetry-MFA earnestness, horrible acting, or both. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneJan 24, 2017
Justin Kelly's film is more interested in rushing through the narrative's events than contemplating their environment. Read full review
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