It could be a lot better. It could be a lot stronger as it approaches the finish. But there's something to be said for watching a guy hide in a car trunk and think, "For him, this is probably the best part of his day."

| Aug 21, 2021

"Beckett" isn't horrible but it seems uncertain as to what it truly wants to be.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 19, 2021

The premise is ripe; the thrills are rich; the payoff doesn't come together quite as easily as the rest. But much of what's here is good -- more interesting for verging on the ridiculous.

| Aug 17, 2021

Beckett lacks urgency, wit, and a lead actor capable of pulling together its underwritten themes.

| Aug 14, 2021

A ludicrous chase thriller keeps running off course...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 13, 2021

The novelty of watching Washington's Beckett run-and run-even as he's hampered by obvious pain wears thin pretty quickly.

| Aug 13, 2021

Washington has presence to spare and carries the film with ease.

| Original Score: C | Aug 13, 2021

As his film hops from genre to genre, director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino seems to be working toward a comment on the nature of grief, guilt, and persistence. Unfortunately, the results can't quite match the scale of his ambitions.

| Aug 13, 2021

Like Beckett trying to escape his pursuers, it's a scrappy little film but one worth keeping up with.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 13, 2021

Beckett manages to be a semi-effective thriller, with Washington holding enough attention to get the audience to root for his titular protagonist, but the lack of character development means viewers are never fully invested in his story.

| Aug 13, 2021

Filomarino keeps Beckett running for his life, but we have no incentive to care whether he'll live or die.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 13, 2021

Filomarino's second feature has the texture, atmosphere and attention to character of a small European film, rather than the one-liners and physics-defying action of a big-budget popcorn movie. By the way, it's also suspenseful and involving.

| Aug 12, 2021

At least with all that running, Beckett gets his steps in.

| Original Score: C- | Aug 12, 2021

For reasons that never make much sense, people with guns are chasing Beckett, whose primary distinction is his ability to evade capture.

| Aug 12, 2021

Taut is perhaps too strong a word: it's more like strained. The movie has great credentials -- music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, for instance -- but little finesse.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 11, 2021

If you're going to keep your audience guessing, you need to provide them with answers they care about. "Beckett" doesn't.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 11, 2021

"Beckett" is rich in story and innovation. Every time it's about to settle in and follow one path, it shifts gears altogether. It's surprising and nerve-racking in all the right ways.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 11, 2021

It's thanks to a kind of tug of war between background and foreground that Beckett succeeds as a piece of entertainment.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 5, 2021

This pedestrian wrong-place-wrong-time manhunt through Greece never really sparks.

| Aug 4, 2021

A by-the-numbers narrative and a third act that mistakes cynicism for paranoia land Beckett in the company of other initially suspenseful, ultimately forgettable Netflix thrillers...

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 4, 2021