True Story 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: What's the opposite of stealing a movie? Putting it back? Looking the other way? Laziness? Whatever it is, that's where I am with James Franco. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: In the four years since he was Oscar-nominated for "127 Hours'' - and disastrously co-hosted the Academy Awards ceremony - James Franco has gone from one of our most exciting actors to an international joke. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: 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 more

Peter Debruge, Variety: In Goold's hands, the two thesps deliver measured, soul-searching work. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Like Serial and The Jinx, it draws some fascination from the distinct possibility that the suspect it studies may be guilty as charged. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: That the main characters are played by James Franco and Jonah Hill makes it more interesting - a good thing because most of the story is two guys sitting around talking. You'll be glad it's them. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: 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 more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The script is first-rate, questioning whether any story can really be credible when both the writer and the subject have everything to gain from it. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Even with shrewd and honest work by Franco and Hill and a solid supporting turn from under-used Felicity Jones as Finkel's romantic partner, the film comes to life only sporadically. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Director Rupert Goold keeps things appropriately creepy, but True Story is no Capote. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: True Story digs deeper into the cultural fascination with killers and attempts a potent corrective along the way, reminding us who's been lost but also how justice isn't just another gripping procedural. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Jones delivers her moral righteousness with a passion the rest of the film lacks. Otherwise, this is just the story of an awful human and the dupe who loved him. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: [An] intermittently fascinating movie version from first-time features director Rupert Goold and stars Jonah Hill and James Franco in roles that, for once, don't ask them to be caricatures of arrested adolescence. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: True Story is involving but surprisingly calm, going for stretches without seeming to care whether what he's reporting is an expose or a cover-up. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Unfortunately this "Story" never finds its footing as either a creepy morality play or a performance-driven two-hander. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Franco downplays his accused killer role, speaking softly and dazedly, which works eerily well. Hill makes Finkel driven and obsessed, yet never heroic. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: By film's end, True Story is less about the evil of which people are capable than the way we manipulate and act, sometimes unconsciously, in order to get what we want. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Lightweight script doesn't help a grandiose premise. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Filming a drama about the compromises and conventions of storytelling, Goold falls prey to them. He lacks the pulp verve and the symbolic imagination to illuminate or even convey the characters' mysteries. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Longo's character remains not just opaque, but uninteresting, while Finkel's gets endless, useless attention. As fascinating as he may have been to himself, the movie never conveys that appeal to us. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This based-on-fact drama would seem to have enough lurid details, slippery truths and human complexity to be an intriguing combination of "Capote" and "Shattered Glass." But the movie squanders its chances. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: 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 more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Never mind the facts. True Story, slick and shaky, doesn't know where the truth lies. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although True Story never comes close to Truman's Capote's In Cold Blood standard for true crime, its willingness to shed the procedural approach allows it to transcend the mediocrity that often infects tales of this sort. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: 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 more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Maybe the point is we never know who or what to believe. But too many maybes are hell on sustaining tension. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The balance between true-crime cable soap and the darker, richer layers of Franco's performance never quite adds up. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Every so often you will look at Franco and think what a fine job of acting he's doing. But you'll think that even as you are not believing a moment of it. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: While the movie sometimes seems like faux Fincher, the symbiotic acting, artful imagery and punchline ending turn "True Story" into credible entertainment. Read more

David Sims, The Atlantic: Franco and Hill's early scenes together maintains intrigue for a while, but True Story never quite indicates that it has something compelling going on beneath the surface. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: You could easily imagine Hill and Franco in a parody version, with Franco, like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, crossing and uncrossing his legs to each probing question. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If we figure out Franco-as-Longo is lying before Hill-as-Finkel does, then why should we be interested in this writer's redemption if he's so easily hornswoggled? Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: In Cold Blood -- or even Capote -- this is not. It's made with too much slickness, and you'll be way ahead of it. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: This is chilling material, and Hill and Franco make sure the story packs a wallop. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: True Story is an intrinsically fascinating and occasionally riveting tale marred by unnecessary embellishments. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: 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 more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Viewers aren't left with queasy questions about truth, credulousness and culpability as much as with a downcast shrug. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: "True Story" rings false from start to finish. Read more