Parallel Tales
Avalon | Release Date: TBA CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
14
Negative:
2

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutAnna SmithMay 16, 2026
There is something watchable about this melodrama in which shocking events force others into being, and in which Huppert is delightfully rude to everyone in a clever way as this literary fraud plays out. Read full review
58
The Film StageLuke HicksMay 16, 2026
Farhadi tries to be funny and Huppert occasionally makes it work (e.g. using a toaster to light her cigarette), but the comedic element is disparate and half-baked. Yet to Farhadi’s credit, his and Massoumeh Lahidji’s dialogue, which serves as the engine of moral ambiguity that powers the story, has the strength to keep one’s attention for the lengthy runtime if they’re able to invest. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 16, 2026
Unfolds with little dramatic momentum and negligible intrigue. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 16, 2026
The movie manages to be rigorously muddled despite not being all that complicated. Maybe that’s because the tales it tells are parallel in such a sodden way. It feels like they’re competing to underwhelm you. Read full review
60
TheWrapZachary LeeMay 16, 2026
Despite being impressively acted and thematically compelling, it avoids wholehearted recommendation due to its uneven repetition of sequences and ideas that make this feel more lugubrious than cohesive. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 16, 2026
When Parallel Tales shifts tones near the end to unveil an unsettling surprise, the film’s confectionery construction cannot bear the jolt. Like Sylvie, Farhadi wants to mine riveting fiction from the flotsam of the everyday, but his imagination proves to be not as formidable as hers. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMay 16, 2026
None of the female characters in the film acts in ways that suggest Farhadi has actually given much thought to what it’s like to move through the world as a woman. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 16, 2026
The problem is that all the various strands — the parallel tales — dilute our access to the characters, limiting their dimensions. Read full review
60
The Film VerdictDeborah YoungMay 16, 2026
If the film works at all it is thanks to the exceptional craftsmanship of its camerawork, editing, and acting, under the direction of Asghar Farhadi. Read full review
60
The TimesStephen DaltonMay 16, 2026
Parallel Tales (Histoires parallèles) begins as an ambitious, metatextual, multicharacter ensemble drama, with various key cast members playing dual roles. But it rambles on too long, losing much of its early charm and focus in a ponderous, undercooked second half. Read full review
25
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossMay 16, 2026
The Iranian filmmaker guides his lukewarm homage to the seminal work of the renowned Polish director with an A-list French cast, crafting an examination of the traps of creativity that lacks the driving force of the spark it sets out to dissect. Read full review
50
Next Best PictureCody DericksMay 16, 2026
Parallel Tales unspools away from sense and a compelling drive and instead turns out to be a monotonous, limp misfire. Read full review
40
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellMay 16, 2026
Unfortunately, the end result feels as shockingly out of touch as a principal character’s devotion to a typewriter. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 16, 2026
Loosely adapting “A Short Film About Love” into a long film about nothing, Asghar Farhadi’s cramped and tedious “Parallel Tales” forfeits the sordid humanity of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s masterpiece in exchange for the soapy meta-fiction of a meandering daydream. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 15, 2026
It’s a riff or theme-variation on Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Love – with a twist of Hitchcock’s Rear Window – doggedly spinning a spider’s web out of itself. The result is intricate, elaborate, though a little nebulous. Read full review
40
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonMay 15, 2026
Parallel Tales is exactly as advertised: The central story interweaves the lives of six people in ways that should be a recipe for delicious, chaotic drama. Yet, Farhadi's latest is bogged down by its repetitiveness and refusal to offer anything new to a story about imagination and voyeurism. What we’re left with hangs a little too long onto a thin rope of painful repetition, false hope, and jaded screenwriting. Read full review
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