The Friend
Bleecker Street | Release Date: March 28, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 28, 2025
The work Watts and Murray do in this sequence is both emotionally raw and acutely thoughtful, rife with specificity. It’s career-high stuff. Read full review
90
The New York TimesSheri LindenMar 27, 2025
This is a love story, after all, and one with a keen grasp of the mournful, curious glances between its two leads — of how much goes untranslated between them, and how much is conveyed. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldApr 4, 2025
It feels odd to be evaluating a dog’s performance, but Bing (the canine actor playing Apollo) definitely broke the heart of this cat person multiple times during the film. It’s a pleasure watching him and Watts connect, and to watch a film about so little and yet so very much. Read full review
88
ObserverEmily ZemlerMar 24, 2025
It’s self-reflexive at times, and occasionally pretentious in its high-brow approach. But writers and directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel have not only made the story accessible onscreen, they have infused it with a raw emotional life that was less easily attained in print. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 26, 2025
A compassionate portrait of mourning and the bonds that keep us united. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiz BraunApr 2, 2025
A gentle and affecting drama from directors David Siegel and Scott McGehee about grief, loss, and the unconditional love available from a dog. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerAug 31, 2024
It gracefully captures the remarkable, singular relationship that human beings share with their pets, tapping into the poignancy and warmth that comes from such a bond. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 31, 2024
It’s the sort of witty, wise, and warm character study we seem to be running out of these days. And that’s just when it comes to its standout dog star, the Great Dane (emphasis on great) Bing. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherApr 25, 2025
Yes, the canine element is structurally paramount, and yes, Apollo the Great Dane, as played by Bing, is adorable and regally sad throughout. But this is pedigree material. Read full review
80
iChristina NewlandApr 25, 2025
The Friend is a film that tells us that the only way out of heartache like this really is through. It may jump all over your bed and make you sleep on the floor, but weathering the hard part has its own kind of rewards. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeApr 23, 2025
Murray and Watts make something genuinely touching of Iris’s quest to discover what prompted the writer to end it all. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 7, 2025
The Friend strips the pet-movie genre from the easy appeal of mawkishness, bringing it closer to what an ongoing dialogue between lonely species stumbling into connection actually feels like. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 26, 2025
[Siegel and McGehee] get that this isn’t just a story about a woman bonding with a dog — it’s a tale of loss and sorrow that inherently knows such heavy feelings aren’t confined to a single species. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 10, 2024
Delectably ambiguous, the film always feels on the verge of some thematic breakthrough — a crystallized metaphor, a revealing flashback, a tell-tale fictional projection — but it admirably never gets there. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesAug 31, 2024
This is a fresh, unsentimental yet touching story. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrApr 3, 2025
The Friend is a better dog movie than it is a people movie, but it’s such a wonderful dog movie that you may not mind that the people are merely fine. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerApr 2, 2025
It’s still a relief that the love story here is between a kind woman and a creature far nobler than his onetime owner. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrApr 2, 2025
The Friend stretches on a bit too long, but it’s done with such care and a kind heart that it’s not hard to give it two hours of your time. Read full review
75
ABC NewsPeter TraversMar 28, 2025
Naomi Watts and Bill Murray are funny, touching and vital as the most recent guardians of a 150-pound Great Dane named Apollo, but the scene-stealing pup scampers off with this slight but irresistible character study and wins a special place in your heart. Read full review
72
TheWrapSteve PondAug 31, 2024
The Friend juggles the happy, the sad and the bittersweet while somehow managing not to lose the lightness that has kept it afloat. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicDina KaurApr 4, 2025
Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, “The Friend” is exactly what you’d expect from beginning to end — there are no surprises. The film, based on the 2018 novel of the same name, is about healing from grief, navigating a years-long friendship and finding new companionship. Read full review
70
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 4, 2025
Given the pitfalls of gush and treacle in this type of material, The Friend is no small achievement. Is it impertinent to say that Watts has never had a better partner in the movies? The levels of emotion she brings to the role clearly have much to do with her co-star. Read full review
67
The Film StageMichael FrankOct 4, 2024
The Friend reminds us of the immeasurable role that dogs, and pets, play in our lives. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineJarrod JonesApr 1, 2025
The Friend asks, often with a good-natured smile, what can and must be salvaged from tragedy, and how we make room for this hazmat effort in a hectic life. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 4, 2025
I like the women’s world this picture creates, with Sue Jean Kim cast as a Columbia U. colleague and Ann Dowd as the sympathetic support-system neighbor. But The Friend is an uneven, not wholly satisfying experience in most ways. Read full review
60
EmpireLou ThomasApr 28, 2025
Naomi Watts’ exceptional performance is the crucial element of this moving if flawed tale. The film to see if you’ve ever wondered how to tackle grief with a ginormous dog in the Big Apple. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenApr 25, 2025
The Friend is a poignantly affecting watch that mostly earns its emotional payoff, delivering gentle laughs along the way. Read full review
60
The GuardianAdrian HortonOct 4, 2024
It can be borderline maudlin and easily teary, though The Friend is grounded enough, and Watts sufficiently understated, to not become outright eye-rolling. Read full review
60
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 10, 2024
The Friend's heart is in the right place, but it can't get out of its own way. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 31, 2024
A by-the-numbers crowd-pleaser with a bit more on its mind than your typical canine-centric tearjerker. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 3, 2025
Teetering toward made-for-TV in its facile depiction of Walter’s many wives and veering tonally from too broad to totally mawkish (the score wants to arm-wrestle tears out of you), The Friend is all soft edges. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMarshall ShafferMar 26, 2025
Hardly a false note is sounded throughout The Friend, but it operates within such a limited emotional range that it drifts into monotonic plainsong. Read full review
50
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 1, 2024
Regrettably, any sympathy the film has mustered is diminished by at least three, maybe four, additional endings that are frustratingly superfluous. These never-ending epilogues add nothing to what has come before it and, in many ways, curtail any emotional heights the film has garnered to this point. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 25, 2025
The film carries itself like a bright and mischievous character study in the style of Nicole Holofcener, but is ultimately just a dog weepie with airs. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesMar 27, 2025
Without the fizz of wit and humor the underlying emotional scenario ends up feeling flat. Read full review
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