The Family Fang
Starz Digital Media | Release Date: April 29, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 15, 2015
[A] smart, tart adaptation of Kevin Wilson's best-selling 2011 debut novel, which thumbs its nose at the clichés of the over-trafficked dysfunctional family genre to dissect the sometimes lifelong quest of children to understand their parents in ways that are funny and bittersweet, poignant and often bracingly dark. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 5, 2016
Even when The Family Fang stretches credulity, we stay with it. Bateman knows how to tell a story. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesJohn HartlMay 5, 2016
With its opening line, “Imagine you’re dead,” The Family Fang instantly invites its soon-to-be-captive audience on an absorbing, provocative, slightly fantastic path that’s like few others. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 29, 2016
Kidman and Bateman make a potent team in a provocative film that questions the limits of art in a world that forgets to be human. The result is funny, touching and vital. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 29, 2016
The movie captures so well the push-pull of family dysfunction that, after a while, even the Fangs’ extreme eccentricities seem routine. And that’s the point: The filmmakers are trying to demonstrate that, no matter what we think our family dynamic may be, we’re all on the same strange spectrum. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 5, 2016
With The Family Fang, [Bateman] shows confidence with drama and, perhaps more impressively, with weirdness, never letting things get odd just for the sake of it. He wisely doesn’t force the issue. This bunch is plenty weird on its own. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenApr 28, 2016
For a project that is a showcase for his talents as both actor and director, Bateman never gets too showy on either front, keeping the emotions of the film at something of a restrained simmer. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 25, 2016
The Family Fang goes deep into dysfunction, but even more impressively, it smuggles in the daredevilish art theories of the late Chris Burden and his ilk. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 15, 2015
It’s a measure of Bateman’s skill in front of and behind the camera that his performance here betrays nary a shred of actorly indulgence, operating instead in a subdued register that achieves quietly aching moments in the final stretch. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnApr 28, 2016
Striving to make deep statements about life, art and family bonds, it doesn't quite get there, but the effort is enough to leave a mark. Like the Fangs' own strange craft, the movie's own shortcomings speak to its themes. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattApr 28, 2016
Based on the best-selling 2011 novel, Fang is directed by Bateman with a sensitivity that the story’s sour whimsy doesn’t quite deserve. Read full review
75
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicSep 15, 2015
A dysfunctional structure and some bizarre plotting stop the film from reaching greatness, but never from being endearingly satisfying. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Apr 27, 2016
The Family Fang has a nasty little bite to it — and thank heavens for that. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 26, 2016
Bateman is nimble in handling a tricky mix of flashbacks and pranks, genres and tones. As you might expect from such a gifted ensemble performer, he's also an actor's director. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 15, 2015
Films about dysfunctional families are as common as families themselves. But for most of its running time, The Family Fang impressively negotiates around the familiar trappings, finding a relatively new way to discuss familiar themes. Read full review
67
ConsequenceNico LangMay 7, 2016
What’s most unfortunate is that The Family Fang leaves so many ideas on the table that would have made for a far more fascinating film, one befitting its unique premise. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 5, 2016
Bateman does an effective job directing the movie, which is based on a novel by Kevin Wilson (with a script by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire), smartly opting for understatement from his performers, so that their characters’ eccentricities have something to play against. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithApr 28, 2016
Yet merely “playing with concepts” doesn’t quite add up to a film, and The Family Fang, adapted from Kevin Wilson’s novel, feels like an extended therapy session. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyMay 7, 2016
It may not be as poignant a story as its characters give way to, nor reach the cathartic resolutions it builds towards, but The Family Fang is still a refreshingly creative approach to the family drama. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 5, 2016
Mr. Bateman’s direction of the actors is especially sensitive in this and other tricky scenes, showing a delicacy with emotional textures that isn’t always matched by the story, especially when Annie and Baxter speak in therapeutic clichés. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 18, 2015
The Family Fang, based on a book of the same name by Kevin Wilson, looks on paper like your typical, middleweight, dysfunctional-family angst-fest. But it’s rather better, and considerably more eccentric, than you might expect. Read full review
58
HitfixGregory EllwoodOct 20, 2015
The movie wants to make a statement about the intersection of art and family, but it’s all too muddled to add up to anything that astute. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMay 4, 2016
For most of the film, Bateman, the director, manages to bring out the two principals’ anguish without resorting to sentimentality, until the unsatisfying last quarter of the film. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 29, 2016
The reason I’m rating this movie higher than I would otherwise, is Christopher Walken. His commitment to making Caleb as thoroughly unlikable as humanly possible yields a character who’s kind of terrifyingly off-putting even when his words and actions are ineffectual. A piece of acting alchemy of which only few are capable. I can’t imagine how powerful it might have been in a better movie. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 29, 2016
Kidman works up to a fine but somewhat under-motivated fury. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerApr 27, 2016
What’s left is those two strong performances. Bateman is especially funny in the sequence that lands Baxter in the hospital, and Kidman never resorts to shallow-actress clichés when indicating how a life in different kinds of spotlights may have frayed at Annie’s nerves. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianApr 17, 2016
There's real texture and emotional heft to the central relationship between the siblings, but that's thanks more to the actors than the script. Read full review
40
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 15, 2015
Saturation point when it comes to quirkily dysfunctional families in over-soundtracked dramedies was reached long ago. Read full review
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