Lemon
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 18, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJul 14, 2017
Lemon represents a feature debut of unusual assurance and control with a style all its own. Read full review
89
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpAug 18, 2017
It’s an endurance test where viewers pit their tolerance for naked displays of ugly masculinity against Bravo’s assured directorial chops. It’s also the best, or maybe most vital, presentation of whiteness in theaters in 2017, or for that matter the last half decade or so of pop culture. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshAug 17, 2017
In Lemon, Bravo and Gelman find a transcendent absurdity in the mundane that’s awkwardly enchanting. It’s more tart than sweet, but deliciously weird nonetheless. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaAug 16, 2017
It’s the work of a filmmaker who has been honing her own jarring, idiosyncratic sense of rhythm and character for years. As a debut feature, it feels auspicious; as a snapshot of a masculine emergency, it feels timeless. Read full review
78
TheWrapKyle TurnerAug 10, 2017
This is a filmmaker precise in her composition and in her texture, her comedic beats reminiscent of both David Lynch and Issa Rae. Read full review
75
ConsequenceRandall ColburnAug 16, 2017
Lemon remains wholly original throughout, rendering old themes fresh with its bold perspective. It’s also incredibly funny, even when it’s dunking our heads into the darkness of the human psyche. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJul 14, 2017
Enhanced by a number of notable comedic actors entering uncharted terrain, it’s the kind of movie that makes you laugh and flinch in equal measures, and despite some messier twists, never ceases to move in surprising directions. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 17, 2017
Lemon is all about this pull and push, toward and away from the characters and the movie itself. It’s also one of the more original films in recent memory. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangJul 14, 2017
Lemon is too in love with being oddball to really have any connection to the real, non-quirky world. And so while scene-by scene its absurdism can be drolly amusing, it never coheres into anything more than a series of sketches. Read full review
60
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyJul 14, 2017
The debut feature by Janicza Bravo takes on a perennial comic genre yet, like its main character, it’s best described as a work in progress. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 14, 2017
Lemon is a comedy of miserablism that keeps poking you in the ribs — and, quite often, fails to hit the rib it’s aiming for. Yet it’s a watchable curio, because beneath it all the director, the Panamanian-born Janicza Bravo, has a more conventional sensibility than she lets on. Read full review
58
The Film StageJason OoiAug 16, 2017
Most of the humor stems from the humiliation of its protagonist — the binding thereof — and it is all quite funny, in a demented, cringy way that makes it difficult to sit through. Here, Bravo’s experience directing theater shows, as long extended shots with exquisite framing wring out the painful anxiety in each scene. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 13, 2017
Although guaranteed to split critics and viewers alike, nobody can argue that Bravo and Gelman haven’t put their all into this absurdist, existential farce. The question remains: Will Lemon make or break that all-important first date comedy connection? (Personally, I’m sticking with Ruggero Deodato.) Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 24, 2017
You can accuse Lemon of a lot of things. False advertising in the title, however, is not one of them. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 18, 2017
There's a flatness in the end-result. The quirky is utterly predictable. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 16, 2017
Gelman and Bravo, who wrote the script together, are married in real life, a fact that somehow makes Lemon’s mix of broad caricature and broader relationship metaphors even clumsier. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAbbey BenderAug 24, 2017
A grating protagonist alone does not a bad film make, but the episodic, unsatisfying Lemon revels in purposeful nails-on-a-chalkboard unlikability. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoAug 17, 2017
Bravo’s abundance of inexplicable details makes for an interesting conundrum at first, but mystery soon fades. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenAug 15, 2017
Self-absorption is Janicza Bravo’s focus, though—as in other smug and mock-ironic comedies—it’s a topic that’s less examined than indulged. Read full review
30
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 24, 2017
Reviewing Lemon feels like taking a sucker’s bet, treating the film with a reverence it never even asks for. Read full review
More From This Movie

59 Critic Reviews

5.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL