The Professor
Saban Films | Release Date: May 17, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
6
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 14, 2019
The film goes down easy because it saves the self-improvement clichés for the homestretch. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 18, 2019
To work, The Professor demands that the viewer believe in Richard and, from about the 15-minute point, I didn’t. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comNick AllenMay 17, 2019
There’s nothing wrong with a little cheese in a message about life, it’s just that with The Professor there's nothing more to it. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartMay 15, 2019
Zoey Deutch is fine in a non-demanding role as the requisite starry-eyed female student, and Danny Huston (“Wonder Woman”) gives us a softer side as Richard’s weepy best friend. But this is, at its core, a one-man show, and given the uncertain future of Depp’s career (being axed from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, for example), it might also have been titled “Johnny Says Goodbye.” Read full review
50
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 14, 2019
Despite a tone that oscillates between quirkish and mawkish, it’s yet another warmed-over male midlife crisis movie, given supposedly higher stakes because the middle of life will be as far as this male will get. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 17, 2019
The picture fares better at finding occasional moments of warmth than at convincing us of its characters' reality. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMay 16, 2019
The movie, which comes off strangely wide-eyed about such “outré” things as marijuana and same-sex attraction, evokes some 1970s-era George Segal vehicle as it struggles to pair hip defiance with come-to-Jesus-style pathos, the latter of which provides a few of the film’s more compelling moments. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 23, 2019
It’s never a good thing when a film about a dying man sometimes has us wondering if some of the people in his life will be better off without him. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 14, 2019
It flirts with being offensive, but falls short. It’s not entirely maudlin, not wholly misogynistic, but close enough. Read full review
30
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMay 16, 2019
Depp’s turbocharged archness is basically the whole show. Read full review
30
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 14, 2019
Sometimes a bad film is just a bad film, but Depp is most likely to pay the price. Read full review
30
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 14, 2019
From its rigid, symmetry-inclined compositions to its heavily worked one-liners, this is cautious, stifling filmmaking in thrall to a reckless, retrograde man, who does little in the course of 90 minutes to merit great fascination or pathos. Read full review
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