The Penguin Lessons

Name: The Penguin Lessons
Genre: Drama
Released: March 28, 2025
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 52

2025

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

No score yet

tbd

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

tbd	Your Score
tbd	User Score No score yet

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

The Penguin Lessons (UK Trailer 1)

Now Playing: The Penguin Lessons (UK Trailer 1)

Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 28, 2025 | PG-13

Summary: After he adopts a penguin during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history, an Englishman (Steve Coogan) has a personal and political awakening.

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 110 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Chris Knight

Mar 26, 2025

The Penguin Lessons is a charmer: a warmer of cockles, a tugger of heartstrings, even a jerker of tears if you’re not careful. And while it may in hindsight seem a little over-engineered to do all those things, that doesn’t dampen the effect. People’s Choice material or not, I loved it. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Apr 20, 2026

Coogan, Cattaneo and screenwriter Jeff Pope have adapted a touching tale that is the Argentine penguin embodiment of “Keep Calm and Carry On,” for those who’re willing to see it. Read full review

Screen Rant Ben Gibbons

Mar 28, 2025

As much as it might omit details important to the wider historical context, The Penguin Lessons confidently engages with its intended topics, and creates something beautiful and emotional. Read full review

Glenn Kenny

Mar 27, 2025

While Juan Salvador is a shameless exhibitionist, Coogan’s performance is understated; he conveys Tom’s softening without nudging the viewer too much. Read full review

Odie Henderson

Mar 25, 2025

The Penguin Lessons severely falters when it deals with the dangers of military occupation. It’s hard to watch a serious subplot involving people being “disappeared” by the government juxtaposed with scenes of cutesy penguin mayhem and classroom hijinks. Read full review

The Independent Clarisse Loughrey

Apr 25, 2025

Coogan doesn’t quite have the earnestness (and perhaps no actor would have the earnestness) to sell the scenes in which Tom monologues to the penguin about his political apathy or the inevitable tragic backstory that made him who he is. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Matt Zoller Seitz

Mar 28, 2025

Based on a 2016 memoir by Tom Mitchell, “The Penguin Lessons” wants to be a thoughtful light entertainment about ideals and courage, but ends up seeming grotesquely misguided. Read full review

SEE ALL 26 REVIEWS

User Score

Write a Review

tbd

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

No reviews yet.