True Story
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: April 17, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
19
Negative:
5
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 16, 2015
The courtroom scenes are unapologetically over-the-top and sometimes excruciatingly exact in the details of the murder, but you won’t soon forget Franco’s expertly nuanced performance. It’s as good as any work I’ve seen in a film in 2015, and True Story is one of the better movies to come along this year. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKatie WalshJan 31, 2015
The film is exceptionally well-made... There is nothing warm about the style, yet it allows for moments of simmering tension, broken by a few emotional explosions that shatter its well-composed surface. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid HughesJul 14, 2015
The former comedy co-stars (Knocked Up) are superbly cast in this fascinating, fact-based story. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 17, 2015
True Story may someday be used in both acting and journalism classes, the former for what students should do, and the latter for what they shouldn't. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 16, 2015
Those looking for a clear-cut chronology of how the murders happened are destined for disappointment. Flashbacks of the crime are short and ambiguous. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 16, 2015
While the movie sometimes seems like faux Fincher, the symbiotic acting, artful imagery and punchline ending turn True Story into credible entertainment. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 16, 2015
True Story marks the directorial debut of Rupert Goold, a respected British theater veteran who also co-wrote the script and knows how to engage the viewer with simple scenes of two people talking (with a few modifications, this could have easily been a play). Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 15, 2015
The reporter/convict dynamic doesn’t have enough layers to carry the film without some hint of mystery. The relationship between the two, chilling as it is, never raises this “Story” from generic to profound. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 16, 2015
True Story never really soars in the way it might, but the performances more than keep it aloft. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 31, 2015
While never as gripping as a good piece of fiction, Goold’s treatment actually manages to improve on the book, even if that meant fabricating a few things along the way. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 17, 2015
Director Rupert Goold keeps things appropriately creepy, but True Story is no “Capote.” It’s all buildup with little payoff. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 15, 2015
The meat of the movie is the behind-bars rendezvous between Finkel and Longo, whose interactions raise questions of journalistic responsibility and the banality of evil. But when a closing block of text announces that the two men still talk on a semi-regular basis — a surprise, given the finality of their last on-screen meeting — it’s hard to shake the feeling that a truly complex liaison has been reduced to an acting exercise for a couple of moonlighting funnymen. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 15, 2015
The problem with True Story is that you wish there were more of it. The philosophical questions it encourages are like the tail that wags the dog. The truth becomes something of an obfuscation, and unlike films such as "Capote" and "Infamous," there’s not enough drama about the compulsive relationship between the writer and his felonious subject. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 16, 2015
True Story is an intrinsically fascinating and occasionally riveting tale marred by unnecessary embellishments. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 16, 2015
What pulls us in are the performances of Franco and Hill, who know how to hold and reward the camera's tight scrutiny. They play a riveting game of cat-and-mouse. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris CabinApr 14, 2015
If the film's copycat visual artistry illuminates nothing, at least its script is sincerely devoted to probing Finkel and Longo's odd partnership. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 17, 2015
If nothing else, True Story is the kind of movie that will spark spirited discussion among moviegoers prone to digging and searching for the truth -- whatever that might be. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 16, 2015
There’s enough unfulfilled possibility in True Story to make it an intriguing introduction to this story of deception and self-deception, but the balance between true-crime cable soap and the darker, richer layers of Franco’s performance never quite adds up. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 30, 2015
Lead performances from Jonah Hill and James Franco are plenty impressive. But at the same time, True Story is almost too polished and clever for its own good, sacrificing complexity for a surface-y examination of the issues at play. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 31, 2015
No one in the film is particularly likeable, and while the global implications about epistemology are interesting, the specifics of this particular case, at least rendered here, are quite dull. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 31, 2015
Goold's work never feels stagey; a smart and varied visual sense opens up even settings as basic as a jail's visiting room. But what happens in that room isn't as convincing as might be expected from these actors. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianJeff BakerApr 16, 2015
True Story, made with obvious seriousness by talented professionals, never establishes itself. Read full review
58
HitfixGregory EllwoodJan 31, 2015
While Longo's actions were horrifying and his connection to Finkel is unique, Goold somehow can't make this material as interesting as you'd expect it to be. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 17, 2015
Never mind the facts. True Story, slick and shaky, doesn't know where the truth lies. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyApr 16, 2015
This mannered, muddled drama about journalistic lapses and worse, crimes, stars comic buddies Jonah Hill and James Franco (This is the End) in a decidedly unfunny story. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 16, 2015
The real problem with True Story is contained in its title. The story isn’t too good to be true, but rather too true to be good. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 16, 2015
Unfortunately this "Story" never finds its footing as either a creepy morality play or a performance-driven two-hander. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 16, 2015
True Story, which leads with its chin from the title on down and which turns a startling tale of true crime and false identities into a heavy-breathing drama that, ironically, fails to convince. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 16, 2015
True Story is a case of a well-crafted film, made by a first-time feature director with an impressive theatrical pedigree, that nonetheless struggles to locate the reasons for telling its story. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedApr 15, 2015
True Story trips and stumbles so much in the telling that you don’t know what to believe, and instead of one man’s irony you end up with two men’s lies. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasApr 14, 2015
Goold, a highly regarded British theater director making his debut feature, lacks the panache to realize this twisted relationship onscreen. Instead he’s made a stolid, well-acted, intelligent drama that respects the complications of Finkel and Longo’s storytelling agendas without bringing them to life. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 16, 2015
The real story of Christian Longo and Michael Finkel might be a fascinating and disturbing tale of crime, curiosity and journalistic ethics, but that’s not what this movie is. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 16, 2015
True Story is a prisoner of its own dull storytelling. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 15, 2015
It’s made with too much slickness, and you’ll be way ahead of it. Read full review
40
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 14, 2015
Especially for a movie that springs from a horrific and grisly crime, True Story feels undershaped and indistinct; it’s too dispassionate to be genuinely chilly. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 16, 2015
If this mess is what they ended up with after erring with the best intentions, I feel bad for them. If this is actually the end result they were going for, I’d be inclined to use the legal system myself, to file an injunction against them ever getting near a soundstage again. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 16, 2015
Writer-director Rupert Goold, here making his feature debut, fails to capture the chemistry and tonal complexity necessary to make this grim, often grisly tale anything more than a tragically lurid anecdote. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 16, 2015
Far from rising to the level of truthiness, let alone truth, True Story rings false from start to finish. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 17, 2015
There’s only one good scene in True Story, though it’s the most flagrantly absurd. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickApr 15, 2015
Franco’s distancing routine helps sink True Story, an already turgid and tone-deaf adaptation of a self-serving memoir by a disgraced New York Times reporter (played by two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill) who bonds with a murderer he’s trying to exploit. Read full review
More From This Movie

50 Critic Reviews

6.0 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