Truth
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ObserverRex ReedOct 13, 2015
Mr. Redford doesn’t look like Dan Rather, but displays the same dedication to — and respect for — journalism that he brought to the role of Bob Woodward in "All the President’s Men." Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 16, 2015
Blanchett gives this dynamo of intelligence and doggedness a real human dimension that allows the propulsive drama to breathe; it’s another stellar performance that rates among her best. Read full review
83
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 15, 2015
To say Blanchett is good here is a grave understatement. Read full review
80
TimeJohn AndersonOct 19, 2015
Debuting director James Vanderbilt (who wrote Zodiac) has a great sense of forward motion and wrings suspense from an idea-driven story. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 19, 2015
The most engrossing part of Truth is the gradual, grueling retreat from the story, first by its participants and then by the network that broadcast it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 15, 2015
More than most docudramas about fairly recent events, it is so well written and acted that it conveys a convincing illusion of veracity. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 16, 2015
Blanchett makes us feel the creeping horror of professional disgrace, the fear and stigma, however unfair Mapes argues her treatment may have been. We watch a polished professional come apart at the seams, caught up in self-incrimination and spiralling neurosis. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonSep 16, 2015
In the closing act, the film sharpens and becomes something far more compelling. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 16, 2015
The keenly focused intelligence and low-boil intensity that James Vanderbilt demonstrated in his screenplay for “Zodiac” are on impressive display in Truth. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 29, 2015
Truth is a strange interpretation of events, in which the visuals and the music sometime seem to be nudging us in one direction, even as the screenplay and the performances are telling us something quite different. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 28, 2015
We see the mistakes before the principals do. That’s what makes the news-story-gone-wrong drama Truth so compelling. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 22, 2015
Truth would have been more compelling with less sanctimony and tougher self-examination. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 22, 2015
Truth is a journalism horror story, something like “All the President’s Men” but with the wrong ending and plenty of blame on all sides. It is one of the most frustrating speak-truth-to-power tales ever put onscreen, because it dares to show how that usually works out: Power wins. Big. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 16, 2015
The film basically upholds the verity of the news story while not condoning the sloppiness, and it’s worth seeing mostly for Cate Blanchett’s firebrand performance as Mapes, a battler consumed by righteousness. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 16, 2015
It’s not surprising that Truth takes the perspective that it does — you don’t cast Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford as Mapes and Rather and not expect the film to side with them. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 15, 2015
Blanchett burns on a high flame, and Redford finds the wounded dignity in Rather. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 16, 2015
Blanchett, a commanding figure who scowls her way through every argument, gives Mapes an involving screen presence that elaborates on the character's staunch resolve much better than the straightforward script. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 19, 2015
The weirdness of Truth — and, I fear, its involuntary comic value — arises from a disparity between the sparse and finicky minutiae of the narrative and the somewhat bouffant style of the presentation. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenOct 15, 2015
Truth is a movie curiously in conflict with itself. There is a constant shift between granular detail and big-picture sweep that the movie never fully resolves. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 13, 2015
Vanderbilt, the screenwriter of Zodiac, here making his debut as a director, masters the heady pulse of high-end, high-stakes journalism. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 29, 2015
Writer/director James Vanderbilt...sticks to Mapes’ version of the truth, and the film serves as a valedictory for Mapes and Rather. Still, the movie never negates the truth’s other strands, while also showing what a human profession journalism is. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 29, 2015
Engrossing and occasionally moving, it doesn’t electrify like that other film about the press taking on a chief executive, Alan Pakula’s “All the President’s Men” (1976). Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayOct 15, 2015
It can't develop themes because it's too busy disseminating information, and this extends to its main characters. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickOct 14, 2015
Truth also ignores Rather’s famous showboating, pettiness and hubris. He’s worked in lower-profile gigs since, but trust me, there’s a good reason why no news organization will touch Mapes with a 10-foot pole. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraFeb 29, 2016
As a counterpoint to the (much better) "Spotlight," it’s a fascinating look at modern journalism – but perhaps not always for the reasons its makers intended. Read full review
60
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 16, 2015
As high-class cheese goes, Truth slips down fine. It’s a noisy, one-note rally for the converted that gets your pulse racing even if you’re rolling your eyes. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 29, 2015
Oddest of all is how Truth whips through this, making noble statements about journalism while brushing off the failures to get it right. Mapes was busy and stressed. (Slow down!) The document authenticators had doubts. (Listen to them.) The source said he was lying before but is telling the truth now. (Don't trust him.) Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayOct 14, 2015
That’s the nature of Truth: a promising build-up, dead-ending into prosaic pontification. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 29, 2015
The film feels dodgy, tentative and uncertain as to how to frame its own protagonist in a complicated story of journalistic compromise (and worse). Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 29, 2015
Truth should have felt like a tragedy, a story about a monumental but fascinating failure of journalism, the flip side to the upcoming Spotlight, about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of sexual abuse within the Catholic church. Instead, Truth wants to make your blood boil. It succeeds — but not in the way the filmmakers intended. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 22, 2015
Cate Blanchett gives a ferocious performance as the steely Mapes, and she mines some genuine emotion out of the material. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 8, 2015
For a movie about the importance of objectivity, Truth feels like a biased and sanctimonious op-ed column. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 16, 2015
Vanderbilt chooses to present the tale with a lighter comic touch in the early stages, and it’s a tone the picture can’t overcome in its final third. Read full review
35
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 20, 2015
Blanchett, as you’d imagine, is riveting, even when she’s saddled with the movie’s on-the-nose dialogue, not to mention a handful of fairly contrived domestic scenes. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 29, 2015
Condescending, self-righteous and sloppy, Truth is simply a bad film for which there are no excuses. Read full review
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