49
Metascore
25 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreBissell has made a film where the casting isn’t the only thing that’s “on-the-nose.” The message, where the film’s sympathies lie and its emphasis on the character with the bigger journey to make could earn it some “Green Book” styled blowback.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsIt’s a surprise and a small wonder, then, when The Best of Enemies starts getting good and pretty much stays that way to the end. This may be an apples/oranges comparison, but: For a true-ish story of racial animus, bone-deep prejudice and the American South in the civil rights era, it’s a better, more nuanced and more interesting feel-good movie than a certain, recent, less interesting Best Picture Academy Award winner we could mention.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleThe movie also benefits from the presence of Anne Heche as Ellis’ wife. Heche doesn’t say much, but she conveys a lot.
- 70VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanThe Best of Enemies while not nearly as good as “Green Book,” is a rock-solid movie: squarely deliberate, a little long and predictable, but honest and thoughtful enough, precise in its period and locale, with very strong performances.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovLeads Henson (barely recognizable under a mountain of Tyler Perry-esque practical makeup) and Rockwell turn in top-notch, emotion-laden performances, buoyed by a supporting cast of equally fine character actors.
- 63Washington PostMark JenkinsWashington PostMark JenkinsThe Best of Enemies is perhaps the first account of the United States’s traumatic racial history that could be adapted into a sitcom.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesThe Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesWhile it lacks the ambition to turn its obvious plot into a film that feels new, it also avoids the pitfalls of moral smugness and stereotyping. It flows along easily, bolstered by Taraji P. Henson’s and Sam Rockwell’s vibrant performances.
- 50The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottRather than illuminating the politics of the present by examining the struggles of the past, Bissell lurches from folksy comedy to clattering melodrama, producing the opposite of enlightenment. To quote an old protest song: When will we ever learn?
- 50TheWrapCandice FrederickTheWrapCandice FrederickThe Best of Enemies tries to remind us that simple solutions might exist if we could open our minds, but it undercuts itself by shortchanging its black female lead and ending on a very maudlin note that lacks punch.
- 38The Seattle TimesKatie WalshThe Seattle TimesKatie WalshThe changes Bissell makes to the story are overly contrived, and the writing and editing are shaky. Most egregiously, Ann’s perspective is completely underwritten, without any personal history and the single humanizing factor of one daughter, who appears only briefly.