A film like 12 Angry Men comes around once in a lifetime, and it will remain a blueprint for what a masterpiece looks like. 

| Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 11, 2024

This arguably remains Sidney Lumet's most compelling work, a sweaty, sustained drama that milks its claustrophobic setting for all it’s worth.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 8, 2023

12 Angry Men is one of the best courtroom dramas in cinematic history.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 18, 2023

It’s a near perfect mix of theme and setting, personal drama and social commentary, a microcosm that suggests an entire world outside the frame ...

| Feb 4, 2023

Sidney Lumet's solid success is achieved without even once resorting to flashbacks or other standard procedures of the film trade. The secret rests in spirited dialogue, realistic setting and, of course, the excellent cast of outstanding character actors.

| Jan 31, 2023

Within its simplicity there is a freshness and ingenuousness about Twelve Angry Men uncommon in a slickly sophisticated film industry.

| Dec 13, 2021

One has to imagine the dramatic imagination that went into creating this fascinating, psychologically realistic motion picture, which, from start to finish, never changes its subject or its location.

| Dec 8, 2021

A court drama that transcends time or place; a real masterpiece. [Full review in Spanish]

| Sep 21, 2021

If you have never seen the film I cannot recommend it enough.

| Mar 24, 2021

Reginald Rose's script is one of deep revelation.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 24, 2020

Thought-provoking, continually riveting, and absolutely unforgettable - and surprisingly designed around a very simple, tightly budgeted, special-effects-free premise.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 15, 2020

"12 Angry Men" puts the full range of human good and evil on display. It posits that, ultimately, the universe is benevolent, and our job, regarding each other, is to attempt with our best effort and greatest compassion to elucidate and clarify the truth.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 30, 2019

One of Hollywood's more notable borrowings from television is this Reginald Rose drama about the soul-searchings of a murder-trial jury...

| Oct 14, 2019

This movie is a masterpiece. That term gets thrown around a lot -- it's a very easy thing to say about great films like this -- but this movie is one of the best. This is one of the very few films that I will call perfect.

| Original Score: A+ | Jan 26, 2018

In the 60 years since its release, Sidney Lumet's masterpiece has lost none of its impact. In this age of unreason, 12 Angry Men remains sorely and urgently contemporary.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 26, 2017

With each new viewing I come away feelings as if I have peeled away another layer on the characters and their buried motives.

| May 24, 2016

Lumet in his first film records it as a meticulous laboratory experiment, a clammy orchestra

| Aug 26, 2015

...the film has aged surprisingly well in the years since its 1957 release.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 16, 2015

There is real value is how it allows each member of the cultural mosaic of a jury to develop into distinct, damaged, and interesting characters

| Original Score: 84/100 | Aug 29, 2013

Too few films take on the art of arguing as a subject; we could certainly use more of them, but until then, Lumet's window into strained civic duty will continue to serve mightily.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 3, 2013