The Penguin Lessons
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 28, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Original-CinChris KnightMar 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
88
ObserverRex ReedMar 31, 2025
Despite the danger of G-rated sentimentality, which everyone involved heroically avoids, The Penguin Lessons is a work of surprising depth and subtle, irresistible impact. Read full review
80
ColliderIsabella SoaresSep 14, 2024
The main reason why The Penguin Lessons is sweet, but also poignant, is due to the script's keen eye for comedy in the face of a tumultuous backdrop. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 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
71
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMar 28, 2025
If audiences expecting a cute penguin movie are forced to engage with the fact that any government which abducts people for having different political views is evil, and that everyone must do everything in their power to stop that miscarriage of justice, then nobody can say 'The Penguin Lessons' isn’t at the very least well-timed. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshApr 1, 2025
Perhaps we don’t need the reminder that our personal relationships with animals are some of the most special and rewarding ones that we can enjoy as human beings, but The Penguin Lessons also underscores that our relationships with people are even more important, and that sometimes animals are the best stewards for this particular journey. Read full review
70
Screen RantBen GibbonsMar 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
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMar 26, 2025
Coogan brings a delightfully sardonic deadpan to the role of the bemused bystander observing the antics of penguins, adolescents and … military dictatorships. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 27, 2025
Anyone just expecting a cutesy animal romp may be sorely disappointed, but that’s because this isn’t about the quietly expansive inner life of Juan Salvador. Read full review
63
Washington PostTy BurrMar 28, 2025
The Penguin Lessons will please the kind of audiences who like to travel the world in comfort, as those PBS ads for Viking River Cruises say, but it accidentally offers those audiences uncomfortable food for thought. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 23, 2025
Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) directs, just about striking a balance between the fluffy sentimentality of the story and its hard-edged political backdrop. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraApr 15, 2025
If you do pick up a penguin, you could do worse than experience Michell’s kind of spiritual and moral awakening. Still, the film is thankfully sharper and less cute than it initially appears. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicDina KaurMar 27, 2025
Delving into Argentinian politics, grief and growth, while the film had room to explore these themes, it remains somewhat lighthearted — which is where it falls short. Read full review
60
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMar 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
60
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 14, 2024
Peter Cattaneo‘s amiable film adaptation matches the book’s feathery whimsy while reaching for a little more political import. Almost inevitably, it’s best when it’s about the bird. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 25, 2025
Unfortunately, the thin story feels terribly stretched and often doesn’t make sense. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMar 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
50
Screen DailyNikki BaughanSep 14, 2024
In its determination to maintain a glossy, upbeat tone throughout — even when dealing with an event that, as a final sombre title card tells us, saw ‘over 30,000 people killed or disappeared’ — The Penguin Lessons proves to be neither fish nor fowl. Read full review
50
IndieWireBeandrea JulySep 14, 2024
The film is peppered with comedic delight. Coogan’s deadpan gravitas leads the way in a cast that mostly delivers. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyApr 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
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyApr 18, 2025
Coogan, like Tom, weathers this relatively unscathed. But Federico Jusid’s tango-inflected score just won’t stop plucking our heart-strings, as if keen to reassure us that we’ll make it through one of the darkest periods in South America’s history without the mood souring. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherApr 18, 2025
Yes, it’s ostensibly sweet and inoffensive. But it’s so inoffensive that it’s almost, well, offensive. Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsApr 17, 2025
While there’s certainly fun to be had watching a cute penguin (named Juan-Salvador) waddling around the school, chugging sprats and mimicking his master, the film never amounts to more than a piece of superficial fluff. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 17, 2025
Weirdly, I felt that this odd film might have worked better if it was just about the lonely man and the penguin without the Argentinian tyranny – or just about the lonely man and the Argentinian tyranny without the penguin. The real non-CGI bird itself is very sweet. Read full review
40
The GuardianRyan GilbeySep 14, 2024
It’s understandable that a film this gentle wouldn’t venture into the gory details of what happens to Tom during a bruising night in the cells but to gloss over any of the terror a civilian might have felt under the cosh is baffling. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMar 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
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