The Tale
Home Box Office (HBO) | Release Date (Streaming): May 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
90
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceLara ZarumJun 5, 2018
The Tale is a powerful and clear-eyed examination of sexual abuse and the shifting sands of one’s own memories. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertJun 5, 2018
For your two hours of discomfort, you will gain a better understanding of the insidious ways in which sexual predators work, and a clearer picture of how a victim’s denial and memory can conspire to bury the truth in the name of self-protection. You will also gain the experience of watching a wisely written, inventively directed, and extraordinarily acted story Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 31, 2018
What a remarkable performance by Laura Dern. It’s a beautifully nuanced portrayal of a smart, accomplished, independent woman who finds the courage and strength to confront the past — and to understand that the demons poking at her subconscious all this time were not of her own making. Read full review
100
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerMay 27, 2018
Restraint and simplicity are words that can be applied to every performance in The Tale, and nearly all of those performances are excellent. Read full review
100
Time OutTomris Laffly
It's a bold, significant piece of work: an investigative thriller with a grave finale that stuns you into silence, then, hopefully, something more. Read full review
100
The GuardianJordan Hoffman
I want more people to see The Tale because it’s such an innovative, honest and important film. It is a landmark, and Laura Dern is absolutely extraordinary. But I know for certain I’ll never watch it again. Read full review
100
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
An immense, brave, and genuinely earth-shaking self-portrait that explores sexual assault with a degree of nuance and humility often missing from the current discourse, The Tale is undeniably primed for the #MeToo movement, but it’s also so much bigger than that. Read full review
100
UproxxMike Ryan
This is an excellent, poignant, and amazing film that will stick with you. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a must-see, even though watching it is a very difficult thing to do. Read full review
91
Paste MagazineAmy GlynnJun 1, 2018
This beautiful, gripping, disturbing film deserves to be looked at with as much nuance as it offers. It’s not a damned hashtag-anything movie, it’s a potent and poetic autobiography that refuses polemic or politics. It manages to dive so deeply into the personal that it explodes into something universal. Read full review
91
The Film StageJordan Raup
The Tale is a soul-excavating reckoning with the suppression of trauma and a testament to the courage required for a victim to confront the most damaging moments of their lives. Read full review
90
SlateSam AdamsJun 13, 2018
It’s almost impossible to conceive of a movie better suited to the present moment of reckoning with sexual abuse, and one better equipped to extend and complicate that extraordinarily necessary conversation. The time for The Tale is now. Read full review
90
TimeDaniel D'AddarioJun 5, 2018
Dern’s mastery is so complete that it makes conversation about the actor’s skill or the awards she’ll likely win seem unworthy; her performance ignites the screen with increasing tension, stuffing a lifetime’s worth of repressed trauma into a moment. Read full review
90
VarietyCaroline FramkeJun 5, 2018
Fox’s directing and script are so purposeful and direct that it can be very hard to watch The Tale without having to look away. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydMay 30, 2018
It's a very fine film, powerful yet nuanced and not in any sense sensational or exploitative. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 28, 2018
It’s the 48- and 13-year-old Jenny sitting side by side, spent, against the wall of a women’s restroom, together in their helplessness, with little to show for their pain except this extraordinary movie. Read full review
90
Vanity FairRichard Lawson
There’s a bracingly alive quality to The Tale, as if it’s sentient and thinking in real time, giving the piece a gripping immediacy. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim Grierson
Brilliantly constructed and heartrendingly performed, The Tale feels as cathartic and cleansing as a primal scream. Read full review
85
The AtlanticDavid SimsMay 25, 2018
The Tale is above all a work of profound empathy, as a look inside someone’s psyche would have to be. Fox isn’t just excavating the abuse she suffered as a girl; she’s also engaging with and forgiving herself, reconciling with the damage that she had convinced herself to ignore for years. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 5, 2018
The power of this material—and of Dern’s devastating performance—stays with you. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory Ellwood
Fox knows firsthand the events that occur to Dern’s character in her feature narrative debut because they happened to her. And beyond its creative success and failures, her willingness to tell her own story in such graphic detail is a startlingly brave act. Read full review
80
The New York TimesMargaret LyonsJun 1, 2018
Its distinctive structural style, with narration that weaves in and out of flashback, is intriguing, and strong performances, especially from Ms. Debicki and Ms. Nélisse, bolster moments of overly pat dialogue. This is a good movie, but part of me wishes I hadn’t seen it. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie Felperin
One of the singular aspects of Fox's script is that it honors the messiness of real-life events, even if that means the film itself sometimes feels messy. Read full review
80
Village VoiceBilge Ebiri
It takes a remarkably assured artist to make all this work, and Fox is savvy about how she eases us into her complicated narrative. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa Wilkinson
In The Tale, Fox takes an experience that’s far, far too common — and newly visible in American culture — and mines it for its emotional heft, turning it into an interrogation of how those who’ve experienced assault and abuse go on to navigate their lives. It is a story of a woman taking her life back, nested in a film serving the same purpose. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMay 25, 2018
The film is one long interrogation, not only from Jennifer the character's standpoint, but from a directorial standpoint. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter Debruge
Both a natural extension of Fox’s career to date and a complete about-face, The Tale marks her first narrative feature, but only because traditional documentary wouldn’t do justice to this messy, meandering investigation into her traumatic first sexual experience, for the incidents it depicts are true, “at least as far I know.” Read full review
More From This Movie

90 Critic Reviews

7.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL