Landline
Amazon Studios | Release Date: July 21, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 22, 2017
Landline is a textured, silly, sweet, and deeply felt comedy that traces the distance between the most satisfied parts of ourselves and the most desperate, between the people we are and the people we think we should be, and it finds that — for better or worse — we’re all stuck somewhere in between. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 19, 2017
Few period pieces get our dynamic relationship with the now so right, or chart so smartly how the present shifts even under the feet of the youngish. Read full review
90
SalonMax CeaJun 27, 2017
With Landline, Robespierre once again proves herself to be one of the funnier filmmakers working. Just as important, she proves herself to be one of the more empathetic directors out there. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 27, 2017
Landline is a very funny film about people dealing with very serious situations. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 20, 2017
In sweetly calibrated moments — a downtown drug deal gone wrong; Falco alone under strobe lights, swaying ecstatically to Donna Summer — Landline finds the analog joy it’s reaching for. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 20, 2017
The actors are all terrific. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 22, 2017
Landline is a dramatic comedy about a family full of secrets, and what’s mature — and, in its way, reassuring — about the film is that it views this state of affairs as an all-too-natural one. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 2, 2017
Elisabeth Holm and Robespierre’s screenplay is both quirky and grounded, gleaning pearls of wisdom about the toxicity of secrets in the face of truth without getting preachy. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerAug 3, 2017
Dad’s suspected infidelity is the tension in a film that hammers its nineties setting so relentlessly it could be called Sex, Lies and Videotape (and Floppy Disks and Payphones). Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 27, 2017
Landline follows the contours of a conventional ensemble comedy-drama. Which it is, from one angle. But the writing's often prickly and funny. The actors aren't tested or challenged, necessarily, but they're playing in comfortable grooves and there's a lot of satisfaction in watching the results. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 27, 2017
Landline offers viewers a rueful glimpse of a vanished time and place. Along the way, it’s often unexpectedly and guffawingly funny. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJul 21, 2017
A forlornly funny and emotionally bruising dramedy that rarely misses an opportunity to reveal humans as the flawed and occasionally awful beings that they are. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 23, 2017
Landline is a film about many things: sisterhood, infidelity, growing up, marriage, parenting, self-discovery, etc. That it manages to have illuminating insights about each, and none feeling like they are taking the backseat, is a feat unto itself. Read full review
70
SlateAisha HarrisJul 20, 2017
A uniformly excellent cast and some genuinely moving moments make Landline easy to fall for. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJan 22, 2017
The film is almost as messy as its characters’ love lives, and the early scenes, which take a long time establishing the various subplots, play less like a dramedy than a comedy that could have used more jokes. But the movie gets more earnest and impassioned (not to mention better) as it goes along. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 20, 2017
Landline rarely feels less than truthful, but there’s also something a little sitcom-easy about its storytelling. Read full review
67
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 22, 2017
Where the narrative is sometimes slack, and the film’s larger purpose left to interpretation after a while, Landline’s great strength lies with its performances. Read full review
67
The PlaylistNoel MurrayJan 22, 2017
Unlike “Obvious Child,” Landline plays like a series of semi-successful comic and dramatic scenes, haphazardly arranged into something resembling a story. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineKenji FujishimaJul 27, 2017
Hers is a humane vision that refuses to cast easy judgment on her deeply flawed characters, never excusing them for their unwise decisions, but understanding the inner anguish from which they arise. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 3, 2017
What stands out, though, is the dynamic between Dana and Ali. It’s been some time since I’ve seen sisters drawn this well and this convincingly. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 26, 2017
It’s just another wry New York family-dysfunction farce, with a stronger supporting cast and (slightly) better production values than Robespierre’s first film but also a propensity for playing it safe and dulling the pain just when the pain should be sharpest. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 20, 2017
Director/co-writer Gillian Robespierre is nowhere near as self-indulgent as Noah Baumbach but she’s aiming for the same audience. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 20, 2017
Landline never finds its emotional footing. Amid all the shouting – and these folks really go at it – there's a void where a soulful core should be. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 5, 2017
There’s little reason for director and co-writer (with Elisabeth Holm) Gillian Robespierre to set the movie in 1995. But floppy discs, pay phones, CD stores, PJ Harvey on the radio and “Mad About You” and Hillary Clinton — in that famous pink pantsuit — on TV suggest filmmakers’ living out some bit of comfort-zone autobiography in this warped dramedy. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJul 24, 2017
It’s a light musing on adulthood and monogamy and sisterhood, washed in Pavlovian period nostalgia. The revelations are gentle, but worthwhile. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 22, 2017
The movie itself is a retread of indie story beats we’ve all seen time and again. Slate’s tornado of a central character doesn’t quite overcome the rote aspects of this production. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJan 22, 2017
The farcical elements in the plot take far too long to gel, and Robespierre and company push too hard at mixing sad, silly and sweet. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 26, 2017
It’s a mix of comedy that isn’t especially funny — offering something more like general high spirits, rather than laughs — and drama that isn’t really dramatic, except to the people on screen. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 20, 2017
For all the profanity and naughty behavior, it has the timid, ingratiating vibe of a television sitcom, sticking to safe and familiar emotional territory. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenJul 20, 2017
Tonal swerves can be a source of useful friction; here they’re simply awkward, and Robespierre’s efforts to meld sentiment and laughs grow increasingly strained. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJul 14, 2017
Heroin is to Landline what abortion is to Robespierre's Obvious Child: a dangerous little variable planted to strategically unsettle the pervading cutesiness. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredJordan RuimyJan 24, 2017
[Robespierre] and Slate make a formidable, interesting pair together and I do look forward to their next venture, but Landline is a disappointing venture. Read full review
45
TheWrapRobert AbeleJul 19, 2017
Crumbling nuclear families are a well-worn movie genre; you could even add “in Manhattan” to that description and the examples would be many. “Landline” is simply another one, not appreciably worse than the average, but not much better, either. Read full review
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