Tommaso
Kino Lorber | Release Date (Streaming): June 5, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJun 5, 2020
The film depicts a subtle, complicated, mostly internal process so thoughtfully — blending humility and go-for-broke nerve — that its flaws ultimately seemed minor to me. Read full review
100
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJun 5, 2020
Erotic, sensual, and nostalgic, Tommaso showcases the sweetest side of Hollywood’s enfant terrible. As far his collaborations with Dafoe go, this marks the creative peak of their symbiosis. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 3, 2020
Like so much in this deceptively earnest film, the Roman backdrop creates ambiguous terms. One is left to wonder whether Tommaso’s internal chaos is that of an eternal figure in an ancient city, or just another guy trying to keep it together as he makes the turn to the Piazza Dante. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorJul 13, 2019
Ferrara has never been so concerned with making people like him–just wait for the audacity of the last 10 minutes. But given the brutal honesty of his latest, one of the most candid movies of its kind, it is difficult to not simply be happy for the man when Tommaso reaches its surreal point of catharsis. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenJun 6, 2020
The camera stays close to Dafoe for nearly every moment of the movie and he brings a compelling vibrancy to the screen. He somehow conveys both the tranquility of Tommaso’s current life and all that simmers just under the surface. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJun 4, 2020
Tommaso has a different feel than your average variant on Fellini’s “8 ½.” Maybe it’s a sense of shame, something the older film’s Guido hadn’t much of. Whatever it is, it makes Tommaso crackle with ideas and empathy, as Ferrara’s best work always does. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 5, 2020
Tommaso has an appealing, casually messy, docu-style approach, as if we’re eavesdropping on these lives. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 2, 2020
Abel Ferrara’s film is about that precise feeling of living with an itch unscratched. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 24, 2019
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Ferrara movie without some jagged edges. “Tommaso” manages to feel rough and risky while somehow sensitive at the same time, like the best of them. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 8, 2020
If this is Ferrara hashing through his issues, may his troubled soul never be totally purged. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJun 4, 2020
What's makes Tommaso stand out among thinly veiled autobiographical movies is that it’s not, like Tarkovsky’s "Mirror," an attempt to reduce an entire life into two hours; nor, as in "Fanny and Alexander" or "The 400 Blows," a portrait of the artist as a young man. This is Ferrara at this precise moment. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 24, 2019
It’s fair to ask whether the world really needs one more story about a flawed, brilliant, lustful older male artist, but Tommaso’s commitment to its own soul-searching fervor is potently feverish. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 24, 2019
A movie that’s a loosely structured ramble can work, and about half of “Tommaso” feels more vital than anything Ferrara has made in a while. But the film should have been shapelier and 20 minutes shorter, with a more focused dramatic psychology. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJun 4, 2020
It is so narrowly focused on neurotic obsessions that the quest for finding that fundamental nature of ultimate reality is sidetracked. What kind of approach is that for a Buddhist? Ferrara takes the easy way out. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 4, 2020
Largely plotless, confidently self-indulgent, and more leering toward those acting students than seems wise, Tommaso is worth a look for the Rome locations and the burnished widescreen cinematography of Peter Zeitlinger. Above all it’s a showcase for Dafoe, who continues a remarkable late-career run. Read full review
50
Screen RantHannah HoolihanJun 3, 2020
Despite a raw performance from Willem Dafoe, Tommaso feels more like a self-indulgent male fantasy than an introspective character study. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 28, 2020
It’s pretentious and indulgent. But as with most Ferrara films, Tommaso makes for an interesting trip into a seriously unconventional mind visualized by an always unconventional storyteller. Read full review
42
The PlaylistBradley WarrenMay 24, 2019
Unfortunately, “Tommaso” is far more navel-gazing and long-winded than intimate, in as much of a creative funk as its protagonist. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 24, 2019
A bit more discipline would have helped this one, which struggles to hold viewer interest across two full hours but would likely register more strongly with 15-20 minutes removed. Read full review
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