The Truffle Hunters
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 5, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 17, 2021
This endearing, thoroughly entertaining movie might be what we all need right now: An invitation to stop and smell the roses — or, if you’re lucky, their far less showy fungal cousins. Read full review
100
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 4, 2021
Just as last year’s beekeeping beauty Honeyland, The Truffle Hunters is a richly allegorical documentary of a vanishing agricultural pastime. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMar 3, 2021
A cinematic delicacy as rare as the truffle itself. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJoe BlessingOct 8, 2020
The Truffle Hunters is a charming, life-affirming film, a look at an enduring folkway that brings fun and flavor to Italians every year. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 7, 2021
It’s a sumptuous movie, with gorgeous cinematography (also by Dweck and Kershaw). It won’t necessarily make you want to rush out and pay a fortune for truffles to shave over your eggs. But it will make you appreciate people whose love for something has so fully informed their lives. Read full review
90
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 11, 2021
What I ultimately took away from the documentary is the deep love that can exist between owners and their dogs. In The Truffle Hunters, both are shown to be the custodians of each other’s happiness. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 4, 2021
It’s rare that a film mixes joy and melancholy with such ease, and to such lovely effect. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Helen ShawMar 3, 2021
Any good documentary teaches you how to pay attention to something, which is why this one feels like such an overwhelming experience: It teaches you to pay attention to the world, all of it all at once. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 9, 2020
Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw (The Last Race) directed, produced and shot this captivating vérité documentary, which finds humor, charm and poignancy in the crusty eccentrics and their adored canine companions who sniff out the aromatic tubers, usually under the secretive cloak of night. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 7, 2021
The movie, a balm for the senses and the soul, celebrates and discreetly mourns an activity that stretches back to antiquity and is slowly being snuffed out by global market forces. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 19, 2020
The Truffle Hunters has a great subject—aging Italian foragers and their dogs, carrying on the storied tradition of searching forests for the rare fungi—but its true strength is in its compositions. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 11, 2021
Dweck and Kershaw don’t build a narrative so much as an accumulation of encounters that often lead to the visually immersive thrill of watching a culinary ecosystem come to life. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 10, 2021
Ironically, this charming and visually ravishing film may further fuel the demand for white truffles, inflating the bubble and ultimately accelerating their decline. On one level, that’s understandable; we all want to be part of something rare and beautiful. But if you truly heed what the film has to say, you’ll go to the park and play with your dog instead. Read full review
83
The Film StageJordan RaupSep 9, 2020
These men have dedicated their entire lives to not only finding these exquisite white Alba truffles but also to the dogs that help them find their way, and to see their culture upturned for selfish reasons is an upsetting thing to witness. That they still have so much personality, joy, and life in them, however, makes The Truffle Hunters a delightful, charming watch. Read full review
80
Little White LiesJake CunninghamAug 16, 2022
Its gnarled, subterranean subject may be shrouded in a biblical halo, but The Truffle Hunters sublime focus on the natural world and both its flora and fauna inhabitants offers calming reassurance for the unwashed. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJul 11, 2021
Every bit as immersive as Victor Kossakovsky’s recent documentary Gunda, about a sow and her piglets, The Truffle Hunters serves as a timely reminder that the world does not turn to the industrialised rhythms of mankind alone, and that we lose track of its natural heartbeat at our peril. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerJul 9, 2021
The Truffle Hunters is a low-key delight, a poignant lament for a fading art that doubles as foodie heaven. Go on a full stomach. Read full review
80
The TelegraphBenji WilsonJul 8, 2021
Here is a documentary that is simple but contains multitudes. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellJul 8, 2021
There is a wealth of real humanity underneath The Truffle Hunters‘ polished surface; in key moments, the film’s high aesthetics fade away to reveal unvarnished, understated pathos. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJul 6, 2021
It’s full of symmetrical Anderson-like compositions, memorable characters and offbeat laughs. And stitched in are some smart, fly-on-the-wall observations about the often-abrasive relationship between capitalism and tradition too. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 4, 2021
A charming and slyly poignant documentary. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJan 9, 2021
The Truffle Hunters is about sustaining tradition in a world that seems to (d)evolve too fast. It's about mortality, but it's never morbid. It's about fungi, but it's never dull. It takes you away from the hustle and bustle of the contemporary, social-media-driven society and plunges you into the woodsy stillness of Northern Italy. You don't have to love truffles to crave a little bit of that beautiful solitude. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 16, 2020
A strange, funny, mysterious and rather beautiful film about an activity that’s recherché to say the least. Read full review
80
Screen DailyLee MarshallSep 9, 2020
The Truffle Hunters is a film as distinctive and lingering as the scent of the rare tuber that inspires it. Read full review
80
VarietyTomris LafflySep 9, 2020
It’s a complex picture that Dweck and Kershaw navigate with respect, curiosity and a sense of awe, managing to excavate the essence of a tight-knit, lovably atypical commune out of it. Read full review
78
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 23, 2021
By focusing on the old men and their dogs who spend their time in the woods of Northern Italy searching for the prized fungus, Dweck and Kershaw operate on a level of gentle, removed observation. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMay 17, 2021
Focusing on a quartet of charming, venerable men and the dogs they love, the film offers an engaging portrait of life in the truffle hunting trade, a bucolic life spent roaming picturesque forests, maintaining the winter wood heaters, and drinking wine. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsMar 5, 2021
Thankfully, despite its creators’ general fussiness, The Truffle Hunters is good enough, if only because guys like Carlo and Angelo are more charming than they are eccentric. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussMar 3, 2021
The Truffle Hunters takes us to a part of the world where time appears to have stood still. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 16, 2020
The Truffle Hunters is more eccentric and lyrical than its logline might suggest. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineCarson LundSep 17, 2020
The film’s reminder of the fragility of agrarian traditions in the face of a merciless profit motive is delivered with tact and subtlety. Read full review
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