Critic Reviews
67
Metascore
Generally Favorable
positive
18(64%)
mixed
10(36%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 28 Critic Reviews
Sep 15, 2015
90
[A] smart, tart adaptation of Kevin Wilson's best-selling 2011 debut novel, which thumbs its nose at the clichés of the over-trafficked dysfunctional family genre to dissect the sometimes lifelong quest of children to understand their parents in ways that are funny and bittersweet, poignant and often bracingly dark.
Apr 29, 2016
88
Kidman and Bateman make a potent team in a provocative film that questions the limits of art in a world that forgets to be human. The result is funny, touching and vital.
May 5, 2016
88
With its opening line, “Imagine you’re dead,” The Family Fang instantly invites its soon-to-be-captive audience on an absorbing, provocative, slightly fantastic path that’s like few others.
May 5, 2016
88
Even when The Family Fang stretches credulity, we stay with it. Bateman knows how to tell a story.
Apr 29, 2016
83
The movie captures so well the push-pull of family dysfunction that, after a while, even the Fangs’ extreme eccentricities seem routine. And that’s the point: The filmmakers are trying to demonstrate that, no matter what we think our family dynamic may be, we’re all on the same strange spectrum.
Sep 15, 2015
80
It’s a measure of Bateman’s skill in front of and behind the camera that his performance here betrays nary a shred of actorly indulgence, operating instead in a subdued register that achieves quietly aching moments in the final stretch.
Apr 25, 2016
80
The Family Fang goes deep into dysfunction, but even more impressively, it smuggles in the daredevilish art theories of the late Chris Burden and his ilk.
Apr 28, 2016
80
For a project that is a showcase for his talents as both actor and director, Bateman never gets too showy on either front, keeping the emotions of the film at something of a restrained simmer.
May 5, 2016
80
With The Family Fang, [Bateman] shows confidence with drama and, perhaps more impressively, with weirdness, never letting things get odd just for the sake of it. He wisely doesn’t force the issue. This bunch is plenty weird on its own.
Sep 15, 2015
75
A dysfunctional structure and some bizarre plotting stop the film from reaching greatness, but never from being endearingly satisfying.
