Irrational Man
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: July 17, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
18
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 18, 2015
Allen's dialogue is witty, his plotting zings along with forward momentum in all the right places, and his observation of elastic moral principles in flux is both mischievous and unsettling, yielding a tasty final-act Hitchcockian twist. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 22, 2015
[A] dark and wickedly funny and sometimes flat-out wiggy little number. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 27, 2015
When the Dostoyevskian drama kicks in, Allen’s venomous speculations take over, and bring to the fore a tangle of ghostly conundrums and ferocious ironies, as if the director, nearing eighty, already had one foot in the next world and were looking back at this one with derision and rue. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenJul 16, 2015
Irrational Man never does make sense of the inscrutable Abe, just as most people, Allen included, remain mysteries to themselves and others. This finally reveals the film to be neither comedy nor drama, but an all too human horror story where the monster is within. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasMay 18, 2015
Allen’s visual direction and editing rhythms are particularly sharp and precise this time around, as is his work with the actors. Read full review
80
Screen DailyGraham FullerMay 18, 2015
Irrational Man heads to one of the most startling pieces of action he’s ever filmed. It hints where he stands now as a moralist or cynic in a corrupt world. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 5, 2015
Woody Allen generates films with such rapidity and inconsistency that you can never be certain if this season’s offering will be a hit or a miss. I’m happy to report that Irrational Man is a delight. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJul 30, 2015
Phoenix is perfectly cast as the ethically problematic Abe, whose novel approach to lifting himself out of an existential funk lends the story its suspense. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 30, 2015
A wobbly enterprise saddled by stilted dialogue and convenient contrivances. But view it as a Woody Allen film, and the plot thickens. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 16, 2015
Allen has crafted a suspenseful mind-teaser that might feel too much like an intellectual exercise if Phoenix and Stone didn't infuse it with raw humanity. The conceptual bubble Allen creates in Irrational Man is potent provocation built to keep you up nights. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 15, 2015
If the genre elements sustain the work as a whole, the plot suffers from the meandering quality that frequently plagues late period Allen work. Still, the filmmaking finds its groove in individual moments. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 16, 2015
Let’s give Allen full credit, by the way, for casting Posey as this wounded, sexy and emotionally rich middle-aged woman, a character enormously more interesting than Jill. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJul 14, 2015
It works better than most of Allen's recent films because it's a trifle without pretense, and because the director's finally smartened up — a little — right when everyone's written him off. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 17, 2015
Allen isn’t doing anything terribly deep-dish here, just gussying up the standard crime-movie tropes. To what end? His point, I think, is to demonstrate that human beings, no matter how educated, are capable of justifying the most awful acts. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedJul 15, 2015
At an obvious crossroads in his life, Woody Allen has been thinking about guilt, morality, consciousness and the limitations of the intellect. I wish he had done it in a more entertaining and satisfying film than Irrational Man. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneJul 13, 2015
Woody Allen and Joaquin Phoenix's collaboration on Irrational Man's antihero is the closest the film gets to a saving grace. Read full review
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