Paint
IFC Films | Release Date: April 7, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
14
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 5, 2023
Paint is one of those good ideas that doesn’t quite make a good movie. Until it does. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanApr 4, 2023
In its dry deliberate way, Paint skewers something all too real: a certain kind of toxic self-deluding male myopia. Read full review
58
ConsequencePaolo RagusaApr 5, 2023
At its best, Paint is a delightful and occasionally awkward ode to art, and how it defines us as creators and consumers. But at its worst, Paint feels, well, pointless. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 10, 2023
As for Nargle, he seems like a refugee from a Christopher Guest film, and I can imagine him, say, as an artist-in-residence among the folksingers of “A Mighty Wind” (2003). Whether he merits a movie to himself is another matter. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 6, 2023
We find it hard to get invested in the fates of any of these characters, despite the talented cast and the undeniably interesting look of the film. Read full review
50
The PlaylistChristian GallichioApr 5, 2023
Paint is a truly strange film that is never the full-on comedy that one might expect, but it also never commits to the despair that seems to be lingering right under the surface. Despite a truly unhinged final twist that almost makes the entire film worth it, “Paint” is more amusing than laugh-out-loud funny. Read full review
50
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaApr 5, 2023
Paint almost gets by on its shaggy dog charm mostly thanks to Wilson, who remains loveable enough to guide us through this world. But the comedy is flat and the drama is dry, and none of it adds up to a pretty picture. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 5, 2023
There’s nothing in Paint to excite fans of the late painter and even less for those who don’t know anything about him. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 5, 2023
Wilson seems perfectly cast, but comes off as so mellow there’s barely anything comical to hang onto. A few flashes here and there tell us where this could have gone. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckApr 4, 2023
Despite Wilson’s on-the-nose caricature and the enjoyable comic performances of such supporting players as Lusia Strus and the ever-reliable Wendi McLendon-Covey, Paint never delves beneath the surface. Read full review
42
IndieWireJude DryApr 6, 2023
With Vermont jokes that read like the musings of someone who’s only ever been for ski season, and the embarrassingly half-baked attempt to critique sexism by writing a kind-hearted womanizer, every stroke of Paint misses the mark. Bob Ross deserved better. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensApr 7, 2023
To the film’s credit, nothing in Paint comes off as mean-spirited or patronizing, including the treatment of the town’s many less-than-sophisticated consumers of televised artmaking. But by the last half, the ambient niceness felt so pervasive and the film’s ultimate purpose so vague that, even when the performances and much of the dialogue remained sharp and funny, the movie around them seemed to dissolve into one of those happy little clouds. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 6, 2023
Written and directed by Brit McAdams, Paint is a comedically inert parody of male privilege that’s all sight gags and very little substance. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 5, 2023
All you’re left with is Wilson’s exquisitely left-of-center take on the master of friendly trees, which keeps creeping toward the sublime before Paint knocks it back into the middle of an undefined road. Read full review
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