The Land of Steady Habits
Netflix | Release Date: September 14, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezSep 13, 2018
Holofcener knows human pathos, the melancholic, absurdist tragedy of it all, the laughter, the tears, the dark biting irony. She understands human behavior and her sharp, well-observed ‘Land Of Steady Habits’ is as lovely and near amazing as anything she’s made thus far. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensSep 19, 2018
If her films so far have ranged from very good to great, The Land of Steady Habits exists somewhere at the low end of that continuum. But that still makes it a very good movie, full of sharp dialogue and lacerating insight about the haute-suburban milieu that the script both skewers and struggles to understand. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 18, 2018
The movie’s central motif — rituals that dull pain and heighten unhappiness — doesn’t clobber you. It seeps into you. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 13, 2018
Though Holofcener's films invariably make us laugh in rueful recognition of the inane complexities of lives that manage to echo our own, "Steady Habits" also conveys a melancholy darkness, a more somber cast than usual. Everything seems amusing until suddenly it is not. Read full review
80
The GuardianJake NevinsSep 13, 2018
The Land of Steady Habits, though not as funny and breezy as Enough Said or Friends With Money or Please Give, is a natural extension of Holofcener’s work, the totality of which is, in part, a rebuke of the idea that likability is necessary or even desirable in film characters. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 13, 2018
Even though Anders and the people around him can be sorted into recognizable types (a fault, mostly of Mr. Thompson’s book), they are also amusing and awful in ways that can feel disconcertingly real. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 14, 2018
Mendelsohn, a great character actor, has unforced, natural and funny scenes with everybody, delicious moments with Falco, Mann, Tahan, Britton and Everyman Character Actor Camp. Read full review
75
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanSep 13, 2018
Her update on “Ice Storm”-style suburban ennui feels particularly potent right now, in its vision of a rotting establishment. But in the end, Anders’ deeply-rooted entitlement proves regrettably unassailable. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 13, 2018
As the tone wobbles between absurdity and tragedy, it also starts to shift toward something deeper and more bittersweet than mere midlife ennui. A lot of that is down to Mendelsohn, an actor who seems born to embody Holofocener’s kind of hero: weary and wounded but still putting it out there, a beautiful mess in progress. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 13, 2018
Nicole Holofcener's The Land of Steady Habits often suggests the film that American Beauty might have been if the latter had been pruned of its smug hysteria. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 12, 2018
Despite a few very funny beats, and a charming performance from the great Ben Mendelsohn, there’s an air of tragedy throughout “Steady Habits,” as if everyone is one bottle of wine away from doing or saying something they will regret forever. In other words, it’s an insightful portrait of middle-age in the ‘10s. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 13, 2018
We all make mistakes, and we all have the ability to wound when we’re just trying to be clever: Holofcener makes allowances for all of that. But she always favors warmth over sarcasm. And as if she could read our minds, she puts in her characters’ mouths words that we ourselves have sometimes failed to find the guts to say. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSep 13, 2018
The familiar suburban terrain is enriched by Holofcener's knack for turning offhand moments into piercing ones and, especially, by a magnificently off-center Ben Mendelsohn. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeSep 13, 2018
In the well-trod territory of fiction about rich men in self-induced emotional crises, the film stands as a worthy, if not exactly groundbreaking, addition. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 23, 2018
There are two curious elements to The Land of Steady Habits: writer-director Nicole Holofcener centering a film around a male protagonist; and Ben Mendelsohn giving a regular-guy, mildly comic performance. I wish both experiments had paid off a bit more. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 13, 2018
Not only is it the only movie she hasn’t written from scratch, and the only movie she hasn’t centered on a woman, it’s also the only movie Holofcener hasn’t been able to make into something more than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 13, 2018
No matter how much you want to like the film, something is missing: a spark, a shimmer, a thrust of discovery. Read full review
More From This Movie

71 Critic Reviews

5.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL