Judy
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: September 27, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatAlan NgSep 26, 2019
If there was ever a film that screamed Best Actress Oscar-bait, it’s Judy. But damn, Renée Zellweger is absolutely fantastic in this role, and absolutely deserves Best Actress honors. Yes, I know the year’s not over yet, but the bar is set high. Read full review
85
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 25, 2019
Somehow, through the alchemy of acting and makeup and lighting and costuming, all traces of Zellweger are erased, and only Judy remains. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekSep 26, 2019
My feeling is that Rupert Goold’s Judy is as good as it needs to be to stand as a framework for Zellweger’s incandescent performance. Parts of the plot are A-to-B, a lot is unsubtle and a climactic scene involving her most famous song is pure-Hollywood schmaltz. But the worst of Judy is worth the price of admission for the one bravura performance. Read full review
83
The PlaylistTomris LafflySep 1, 2019
Zellweger’s poise and presence make the entire affair more than worthwhile. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 5, 2019
Zellweger and Garland coexist symbiotically on the screen, in a kind of magic-eye illusion of a performance that flips back and forwards between the two. Zellweger is phenomenally good nonetheless. Read full review
80
Total FilmKate StablesOct 4, 2019
Zellweger knocks it out of the park, lighting up this punchy and moving late-life biopic with big-hearted, big-voiced panache. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaSep 26, 2019
Despite its flaws, Judy can leave you feeling like an emotional wreck by the end. Read full review
80
TheWrapSasha StoneSep 1, 2019
Things as subtle as how Garland pronounces the word “wonderful” are not missed by the exacting Zellweger, who has brought the legend to vivid, full-color life. Even if she can’t quite match the beauty of that famous voice, Zellweger captures the spirit of how Garland sang. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeAug 31, 2019
Director Rupert Goold and resurgent star Renée Zellweger have pulled off something unusual and affecting in Judy: a biographical portrait in which performer and subject meet halfway, illuminating something of each other in the process. Read full review
76
Paste MagazineJoelle MoniqueOct 8, 2019
Fueled by Zellweger, Judy has the power to take you over the rainbow with Garland, past the bright lights, through the cold nights, and into the pure love between an icon and her audience. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 25, 2020
[Zellweger’s] unrecognizable, in appearance and level of conviction. Even with the gaps I have in her filmography, I feel safe saying this is a career-best performance. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 30, 2019
Although Judy doesn’t adhere rigorously to the chronology of the main character’s last months, it provides a compelling portrait of the tragic decline of one of America’s 20th century icons. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 26, 2019
What’s most appealing about Zellweger’s portrayal is the brightness that peeps out from the clouds: her deep love for her children, her sly wit. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 25, 2019
If you saw Judy Davis as Garland in the 2001 miniseries “Me and My Shadows,” you know that’s a performance to beat. Zellweger matches it in her own way, through hair and makeup but mostly by channeling a kind of terrified bravura that’s riveting to watch. This Judy knows she’s an icon, and she knows it does her no good, and it’s all she’s got. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 25, 2019
The result is a relatively straightforward slice-of-life biopic, bogged down with flashbacks and backstage histrionics, that nonetheless offers an utterly transfixing glimpse at the art of screen performance writ gloriously, glamorously large. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 23, 2019
Zellweger’s film — and it is hers — creates an intimate illusion that feels authentic, witty and affecting. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartSep 12, 2019
No matter how well you know “Over the Rainbow,” you may never hear it as heartbreakingly performed as Zellweger sings it here. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerSep 10, 2019
This is one of those solo turns where the star performance matters more than the story, and Renee Zellweger, playing the legendary singer Judy Garland in her sad last months – broke, anxious, drunk, rueful, but still in it – gives it everything she’s got. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 5, 2019
If the blond, marathon-lean Zellweger hardly seems like a natural doppelganger for Garland, she subsumes herself completely in the role, without ever tipping over into some kind of gestural Judy drag. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodySep 26, 2019
Zellweger’s singing here passes through to the other side. Suddenly, Zellweger herself seems to pass over to the other side of the character, to come out from behind the curtain and reveal that the cabaret performer and singer in question isn’t Judy Garland but Renée Zellweger, and has been all along. She leaves the movie behind, where it belongs, and heads off on her own, by herself. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 26, 2019
The triumph of this performance is that Zellweger is not so much presenting a Garland we’ve never known as portraying the one we’ve read about with the kind of nuance and depth that insures hearts go out to her, as they always have. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 26, 2019
The movie, directed by Rupert Goold, is a conventional but perfectly serviceable showcase for its star, who sets the whole thing on fire every time she launches into a Garland classic in her own voice. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 25, 2019
This is less a straight-up biopic than a meditation on the texture of one vibrant but troubled life; Zellweger goes just far enough into Garland’s pathology of suffering without fetishizing it. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 24, 2019
You’ll want to see this for Zellweger’s bravura turn alone. It’s one of the best performances of the year. Read full review
70
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsSep 1, 2019
I admire Zellwegger’s performance most of all for risking outright broadness, even badness, to chip away at the truths of the star’s persona. Frankly, it’s a performance that threatens to fly free of the movie enclosing it, which is well-made but not nearly as compulsively odd as its star. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganAug 31, 2019
Renee Zellweger gives the performance of her career in a film which is certainly an awards-friendly biopic, but strikes a darker, more maudlin note than expected. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberAug 31, 2019
Judy is three-quarters of a good movie that would have been even better if it trusted the urgency of the last act of Garland’s life — and the brilliance of Zellweger’s performance. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisSep 25, 2019
That Zellweger had the audacity to decide to actually sing the standards in Garland’s act, rather than lip-synch them, and then perform them with such bravado in a voice eerily channeling Garland is the real icing on the cake here. In Judy, a star is reborn. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeSep 10, 2019
It’s an intriguing idea that results in a painfully by-the-books biopic. That being said, a gusty, heartbreaking turn from Renée Zellweger makes the exercise worth sitting through. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowrySep 26, 2019
Judy is well worth seeing, if not necessarily rushing to a theater to experience, thanks to Zellweger's uncanny ability to replicate Garland's quirks and still locate the humanity and fragility within her. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerGary ThompsonSep 26, 2019
The shared energy created by audience and performer that is so restorative to Garland is where the movie finds life. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 26, 2019
From start to finish, Judy feels more like a stylized tribute act than an insightful interpretation of the real thing. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrSep 26, 2019
Zellweger’s voice might not be an exact match of Garland’s, but the soul and spirit that she brings along with her lovely approximation will certainly elicit more than a few goosebumps. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittSep 24, 2019
Without Zellweger’s remarkable Oscar-worthy performance, it’s standard-issue biopic fare – with her, the cultural icon comes to life again, warts and all. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 27, 2019
It’s hard not to gather up these move complicated moments and wish for more of them — to think about how much better it would have been if she had gotten to play Garland as a flesh-and-blood person and not as the saint of suffering for showbiz. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenSep 26, 2019
Its trump card, of course, is Zellweger, who blows through the film in a gust of jittery energy, wounded ego and half-buried star quality. The transformation is startling. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerAug 31, 2019
Despite an imposing performance by Renée Zellweger, Judy never exposes the dark heart of Garland’s last years, creating an enjoyable backstage drama movie while failing to get under its protagonist’s skin. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 31, 2019
Sketchy it may be, but the film finds dreamy consolation in the final curtain. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 31, 2019
Zellweger gives us a tribute to Judy Garland’s flair and to that ethos of the show needing to go on being both a burden and driving force. Yet Garland’s terrible sadness is mostly invisible. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedSep 27, 2019
Despite an avalanche of misguided raves, Renée Zellweger as the greatest entertainer of the 20th century in a film called simply Judy is nothing more than another gimmick. You won’t get the real deal here, no matter which gushing hysteric you read. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 27, 2019
On a musical bio-pic scale, this isn’t “Rocketman” or “Bohemian Rhapsody,” not “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Sweet Dreams” or “Get on Up.” It’s unfortunately a lot closer to “Jimi: All is By My Side.” Uncanny in its impersonation, flat as a movie, forgettable as a biography. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 25, 2019
Mostly, Judy offers the familiar spectacle of one star playing another. Zellweger’s performance is credible, with agitated flutters and filigreed touches, though it leans hard on Judy’s tremulous fragility, as if she were a panicked hummingbird. The take is also cautious, too comfortable; it never makes you flinch or look away. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 24, 2019
A great movie was within reach with Judy — the new Judy Garland biopic starring Renee Zellweger — but the producers and creators made an epic mistake: They didn’t use Garland’s actual vocals. Instead, they let Zellweger pinch-hit for Babe Ruth and ended up spoiling the movie. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith UhlichSep 18, 2019
Renée Zellweger can reach all the notes and hit all the marks, but Garland’s intense emoting eludes her. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloSep 17, 2019
As played by Renée Zellweger, this Judy is painfully and visibly anxious. Or, perhaps this is her idea of drug-induced twitching. Either way, there are spots in the movie where Zellweger’s affected manners become too distracting and overshadow everything else around her. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnSep 1, 2019
Zellweger inhabits the role of the jaded, soul-searching musical icon reasonably well within a dreary and unremarkable saga that finds her grappling with her past, contending with pill-popping addictions and a broken family. It’s a familiar story that Judy struggles to freshen up, at least until Zellweger takes the mic. Read full review
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