The Many Saints of Newark
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 1, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
17
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The AtlanticDavid SimsOct 1, 2021
A number of the observations about the strictures of gangland life that The Many Saints of Newark bumps up against are compelling, but the film is a victim of its own compression, telling a season’s worth of stories in two hours. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Jen ChaneySep 30, 2021
In its subtext, this movie tells us that nothing is as good as you might hope. That’s true of the era that Tony would later, wrongly, glorify. And it’s true of a movie that is fascinating to study and consider, but not nearly as good as the television series that made us wish for this movie to exist. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradySep 27, 2021
There’s enough drama to hold the film together for the uninitiated, although many fleetingly introduced characters suggest that – for all David Chase’s protests against streaming – we’re watching a pilot rather than a truly standalone project. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 25, 2021
It’s undeniably entertaining stuff, but this choppy collage-style portrait of the formative figures in the life of the young Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) is better suited to the needs of existing fans rather than those of Sopranos neophytes. Read full review
60
Time OutOlly RichardsSep 21, 2021
For those who’ve never seen The Sopranos, or don’t remember it vividly, this may leave you feeling a little adrift. There is a dense, potentially very rich story here, but a two-hour movie gives it too little space to unfold. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 21, 2021
The late-’60s and early-’70s production and costume design, by Bob Shaw and Amy Westcott, respectively, are rooted firmly in an evocative sense of time and place, enhanced by a soundtrack of pinpoint needle drops. But The Many Saints of Newark is more of a diverting footnote than an invaluable extension of the show’s colossal legacy. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 21, 2021
Michael Gandolfini is goosebump-inducing as the young Tony Soprano, amid race riots and antagonism towards rival African American gangs. Read full review
50
Little White LiesHannah StrongOct 4, 2021
With a forgettable, borderline generic, plot and direction lacking flair and artistry, it’s not a disaster, it’s just a disappointment. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesLorraine AliSep 30, 2021
The Many Saints of Newark might have played better as a limited series rather than a truncated self-contained production, with the potential for a deeper story to unfold over several impending episodes. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 23, 2021
The “origin story” that is the film’s chief appeal takes a back seat to “series pilot” requirements. The film’s biggest asset becomes a handicap. “Saints” never feels thorough, thought-through or complete. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 21, 2021
The juxtapositions between backroom politicking, intimate family drama, and the occasional lurches into action often give the impression of a TV season’s worth of content crammed into two hours. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 21, 2021
Chase, who co-wrote the script with an alum of his writers’ room, Lawrence Konner, flattens the world of The Sopranos into a generic, vaguely Scorsesian crime epic. At times, the film suggests the shapelessness of a biopic, as though it were beholden to some historical record of facts and figures. Read full review
47
Paste MagazineJacob OllerOct 1, 2021
While Chase, Taylor and Konner figure out a way to give us a half-assed rundown of the gangster rise-and-fall we saw again and again in the series, they couldn’t figure out how to make that into any kind of satisfying film—let alone one worth its references to the gangster canon and let alone one that has anything at all to say about the race relations in Newark during its setting. Read full review
42
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 30, 2021
The result is an indecisive and shapeless drama that never seems confident in the characters or situations it has created. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 4, 2021
Over six seasons The Sopranos at least compensated for its reductive aesthetic with complex patterns of narrative information. The Many Saints of Newark, by contrast, reduces characters of potentially mythic power to a handful of defining traits and pins them to a diorama-like backdrop of historical readymades. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 30, 2021
In the end, the best thing about “The Many Saints of Newark” is that it makes you think about “The Sopranos,” but that’s also the worst thing about it. Read full review
40
TheWrapDan CallahanSep 21, 2021
The new characters are all one-dimensional, and we learn nothing new about the old characters from the series. Read full review
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