Wilson
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: March 24, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
18
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
We Got This CoveredJoseph HernandezMar 23, 2017
Funny, touching and insightful. Woody Harrelson is in top comedic form in this tonally unique comedy with a lot on its mind. Read full review
75
TheWrapDave WhiteMar 23, 2017
Brought to life on screen, Wilson is a fractured, heartsick, funny adventure in mundane misery. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinMar 23, 2017
In the movie version of Wilson, starring Woody Harrelson, no one flies or turns into a centaur. But quiet magic happens nonetheless. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 24, 2017
It should all be sharper and funnier than it is. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 22, 2017
It’s a gamble, building a comedy around a character this boorish. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJan 24, 2017
Even as the screenplay (which Clowes adapted) contains much of the source material’s pitch-black humor, it also falls short of realizing its subtle vision of an angry recluse learning to make peace with his surroundings. Read full review
67
The PlaylistNoel MurrayJan 24, 2017
This Wilson is sweet and pleasant and occasionally riotously funny. But it’s still the simplified version of a much more complicated work of art. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaMar 24, 2017
While Wilson peters out at the end, one can’t totally dismiss a movie that gets away with a visual “Umberto D” joke and showcases probably the worst tramp-stamp tattoo ever. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 23, 2017
A character, even when he’s played by Woody Harrelson, is not a movie. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMar 23, 2017
Wilson isn’t a bad film, but it could have used less melodrama and a lot more insight. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 23, 2017
Missed opportunities hobble the film as a whole, but Harrelson is in there pitching his best game. That alone is a sight to see. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartMar 22, 2017
Wilson doesn’t have the emotional heft, or the narrative arc, of Johnson’s last film, but it does remind you how much fun it is to watch Harrelson. In real life, Wilson would just be a straight-up a - - hole. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonAnna SmithJun 5, 2017
The film’s bouts of slapstick and sentiment sit slightly oddly with its downbeat tone, but if Wilson isn’t entirely consistent as a character, Harrelson is consistently funny – and if anyone can make a sociable misanthrope believable, he can. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 23, 2017
Wilson asks, can a male middle-aged crank get a sentimental education? If you even care whether that’s possible, Craig Johnson’s film adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ 2010 graphic novel offers a reasonably amusing case study in how that might transpire. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 23, 2017
Wilson has some deliciously awkward laughs thanks to Harrelson’s curmudgeonly, childlike performance, but it zips right along without ever landing any emotionally resonant blows. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 26, 2017
Despite [Harrelson's] commitment to a lack of civility, there’s a darker film lying in the cynical heart of Wilson, one that gets squandered by its mawkish aesthetic and lack of interest in exploring these characters beyond their crudeness. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 27, 2017
I wish the movie had more of a tragic undercurrent — the tone is wobbly. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerMar 23, 2017
Perhaps I’ve seen one too many movies in which men who need to grow up have to wreak havoc on other people’s lives to do it. And this is that one too many. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisMar 23, 2017
It’s hard to dislike a film where almost every character, no matter how small, brings something to the screen, and because of that, Wilson World is worth inhabiting for a few hours. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 23, 2017
The tone is so uneven, the shifts so jarring, that they overtake the movie’s modest pleasures. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 23, 2017
Warming up this material, as Johnson tries to do, doesn't make it warmer; it just makes it seem warmed-over. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMar 23, 2017
A lot of talent gets wasted in Wilson: not just Harrelson, Dern, and Clowes. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 24, 2017
Despite its appealing performers and some tasty comic moments, Wilson overestimates our affection for a grating antihero only mildly warmed by Harrelson's ambling charm. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 24, 2017
Unfortunately, a glib superficiality hangs heavy over the narrative. Rather than really explore these lost and angry souls who feel destined to be despondent, Wilson settles for simplistic quirkiness, which makes the characters merely bland misanthropic types instead of fleshed-out individuals. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 24, 2017
In Wilson, Daniel Clowes’ voice, which was once acerbically hip, sounds dated. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 23, 2017
Harrelson and Dern's efforts aside, Wilson is indie ennui at its emptiest, a vessel of misshapen wit with a hole in the bottom. Its nihilism is exhausting. Oddness gets oppressive when a movie goes through more mood swings than its unbalanced heroes. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 23, 2017
It's more than a little ironic, then, that the one thing missing from director Craig Robinson's often-amusing, frequently episodic film is just that: a resonant emotional core. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 23, 2017
The dark, comic poignancy of the book is drowned in garish, self-conscious whimsy, and the work of a talented ensemble is squandered on awkward heartstring snatching. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMar 22, 2017
Harrelson is mostly game, channeling a more abrasive version of Harvey Pekar, but time and again, the film pulls its punches or becomes bogged down in cliches. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 24, 2017
As things go bad for Wilson, the movie, unfortunately, loses a considerable amount of steam as well. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 30, 2017
So many scenes in Wilson play as if they’re dropped in from a different genre. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaMar 20, 2017
Wilson lurches jarringly from poignant melancholy to cartoonish slapstick, unable to settle on a consistent tone. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 23, 2017
There’s a story here, all right, but it’s a heartless and bitter one. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonMar 21, 2017
Inevitably, his generic disgruntlement will soften: Amerindie dyspeptic-comedy formula dictates that the man who rants two times too many against the addiction to phones and the internet will, by film’s end, have a heart-stirring video chat. Read full review
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