Reality
HBO Films | Release Date (Streaming): May 29, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Irish TimesTara BradyJun 2, 2023
The film is ultimately a showcase for Sweeney, however. You can see the panic rising beneath the young actor’s calm, collected front. It’s a brilliantly measured turn that couldn’t be further from Sweeney’s iconic breakdown as the vulnerable Cassie on Euphoria. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonJun 1, 2023
Satter, a veteran theater director, makes a smooth transition into her feature film debut, written with James Paul Dallas. She’s skilled at evoking tension from a minimal set. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 1, 2023
Sweeney has finally got her serious-actor moment and delivered. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMay 31, 2023
It’s a true triumph of storytelling and performance and a reminder that films don’t need to be flashy or big to be great. Read full review
70
Little White LiesCaitlin QuinlanMay 31, 2023
Were it not for the transcripts, Reality would be a more straightforward addition to the already-oversaturated true crime genre. Satter’s handling of the material and Sweeney’s performance, however, bring this into a more intriguing space where questions of narrative truth, perception and the punishment for honesty are addressed. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 30, 2023
Reality isn’t just stranger than fiction: It’s subtler, sadder and exponentially more haunting. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerMay 30, 2023
There’s a reason that Satter knew Winner’s transcript would succeed as a play, but she brings very little that’s new and exciting as a film director of that same narrative. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMay 30, 2023
Reality is filled with the sickening tension of a thriller, but it really plays like a tragedy, given that we already know what happened to its subject next. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 30, 2023
Reality reaches beyond Winner’s experience on one momentous Saturday afternoon to prod us all into contemplating our own relationship to actions over words, and the powerfully wielded consequences that keep many — but thankfully, not all of us — from doing nothing. Read full review
80
EmpireIana MurrayMay 30, 2023
A beautifully understated performance from Sydney Sweeney, paired with stylistically minimalist filmmaking, make for a chilling, compelling chamber piece — finding the humanity underlying even the tensest of confrontations. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryMay 30, 2023
Reality might have benefited from widening the play’s tight, almost-claustrophobic focus a little bit more for this medium, but what’s there remains stark and compelling, with Sweeney’s discomfort speaking volumes even though the character says very little. Read full review
100
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMay 30, 2023
Emotional complexity, the manifold feelings her character is experiencing, and her well-trained attempts to stay cool, flash across Sweeney’s face. We start to really see what she’s thinking, and that leads to a bigger, more unnerving demonstration of the abject failure of the systems meant to protect us to do anything like that. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownMay 28, 2023
The film interrogates both the state of our world and the lines between fiction and document. Read full review
68
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMay 26, 2023
Though its real-life story ultimately proves a little too one-note, it makes up for its thinness with a powerhouse lead turn from Sydney Sweeney as a woman caught in a nerve-wracking mess of her own making. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMay 26, 2023
Reality is a brutal film, with a short run-time and a story arc so strong it obliterates the memory of self-important complex films, weighted down with a "message," straining for relevance. Satter's film doesn't need to push. Reality wears its relevance on its fluorescent-lit short sleeves. Read full review
90
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaMay 22, 2023
Reality is an immensely nerve-wracking film that grips you from the get-go and never lets up. Like Reality Winner, we're all stuck in that dirty, empty room, wondering when we'll get out, and worrying about what will happen next.  Read full review
100
Time OutDavid HughesMay 15, 2023
With no formal film training, Satter has crafted a claustrophobic thriller packed with such nail-biting tension there should be an emergency manicurist waiting outside each cinema. Read full review
80
NMELou ThomasMar 2, 2023
Sweeney is excellent as the whistleblower who slowly but surely realises the game is up and creeps from poised confidence to frightened, tearful regret. Hamilton and Davis are also very believable as agents in complete control. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 24, 2023
This, the film says, is what it really feels like to be on the receiving end of the law in a case like this: a calm, professional, technocratic but relentless display of overwhelming power. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 20, 2023
Reality transcends staginess as a strikingly well-realised piece of filmmaking, using judicious sound design and expressive lighting to gain a surreally vivid edge. Read full review
100
ColliderMarco Vito OddoFeb 20, 2023
Sweeney's take on Winner reflects the emotional whirlwind the young woman went through after FBI agents showed up in her footsteps. Thanks to her, Reality is a mesmerizing experience that doesn’t hold any punches and will shake any viewer to their core. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 19, 2023
Satter’s fascinating film moves away from the rhythms of political thriller and into the eerie realm of the uncanny. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 19, 2023
Sweeney never lets you forget that Reality Leigh Winner was just a young woman who believed she needed to act, which is why the picture works so well: her ordinariness makes her seem all the more helpless, and also more relatable. She could be any of us. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangFeb 19, 2023
Reality can be stranger than fiction, but “Reality” fuses the two to become stranger, and more riveting, still. Read full review
83
The PlaylistCharles BramescoFeb 19, 2023
Ultimately, it’s Sweeney’s show, and she excels in locating small crannies of tacit detail within these offhanded lines. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 19, 2023
Satter shows unfaltering command of the medium for a first-time film director, notably in her penetrating use of the closeup, which makes the steadily exposed raw nerves of Sydney Sweeney’s remarkable performance in the title role all the more disturbing to witness. Read full review
91
IndieWireSteph GreenFeb 19, 2023
Inching towards its grand reveal through surreally awkward conversation, “Reality” is gripping and deceptively layered, delineating both the FBI’s queasily ingenious interrogation tactics and Sweeney’s extraordinary range. Read full review
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