The Laundromat
Netflix | Release Date: September 27, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
16
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 1, 2019
The Laundromat is an air-tight, tumultuous info-graph about our rotten to the core financial systems and, in particular, the 2016 Mossack and Fonseca leak, when millions of the Panamanian law firm’s files were anonymously leaked to the press. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 27, 2019
A broad agitprop comedy written by Scott Z. Burns that’s labored in parts but is, as a whole, sensationally valuable. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 26, 2019
The movie is both a lesson and a diversion, a movie that seeks to educate by means of trickery and misdirection. It is thus best approached as a kind of cinematic shell game, in which the focus of the story keeps shifting and the full scope of the corruption on display remains just out of view. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearSep 26, 2019
The Laundromat ends on a pre-credits image that feels destined to become a meme. Everyone’s hands are dirty, it tells us. Maybe it’s time hold folks accountable and clean up our act. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 1, 2019
Much of the movie is bitterly funny; some of it just amusingly droll. But the finale, a rallying cry that’s both galvanizing and wistful, is a wrap-up worth waiting for. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 1, 2019
The Laundromat is Soderbergh at his most playful, and also Soderbergh at his most wonkish, and damned, in this case, if the two don’t chime together. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 1, 2019
The film’s prize asset ... is Meryl Streep. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 9, 2019
The Laundromat uses a format not unlike that of "The Big Short" (without Margot Robbie in a bubble bath) to shine the light on the kinds of activities uncovered by The Panama Papers. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 1, 2019
Soderbergh and Burns remain exceptionally well-matched collaborators. They’re after just enough human interest to make us care, and just enough socioeconomic outrage to make us seethe — some of us, anyway. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 1, 2019
Comparisons to Adam McKay‘s “The Big Short” and “Vice” are unavoidable. But though The Laundromat is similarly breezy, unsubtle, and disposable—it is not, we’d wager, one of the Soderbergh films that will best stand the test of time—it is still a better movie. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 1, 2019
The Laundromat may be blunt, and the humor hit-or-miss — but it swings wildly at a worthy target, and eventually hits its mark. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyOct 3, 2019
The Laundromat consistently feels as if it’s intended to be funnier or more poignant than it actually is. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 2, 2019
If a motley crew of movie stars is what it takes to shine more light on government malfeasance, then let Meryl carry that torch in a wig and a bucket hat. But as a pure movie-going experience, it’s all kind of a wash. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 9, 2019
As inventive as The Laundromat is as an information vector, though, its semi-ironic tone is at odds with the content at hand: This is a movie that often feels like it’s fighting itself, asking viewers to be charmed by Oldman and Banderas’s characters one moment, and — maybe? — outraged the next. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 9, 2019
All these segments are well made and engaging, but their lack of interconnectedness reduces The Laundromat to a sketch comedy, and random guest appearances by actors like Sharon Stone (as a Vegas real estate saleswoman) and David Schwimmer (as a small-time lawyer) only add to the scattergun atmosphere. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 10, 2019
In 96 minutes, Soderbergh presents a series of vignettes underlining humanity’s subservience to greed. Some of the segments work – especially one involving an African business titan who decides to teach his daughter an expensive family lesson – and some are too thin (maybe there is a downside to that brisk 96-minute runtime after all). Read full review
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