I wish [Mike] Mills had dug even deeper. I found Beginners charming, but not as moving as I expected. Still, I would recommend this delicately directed film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 31, 2024

Mills has delivered a moving film worth celebrating, one whose idiosyncrasies are nothing short of charming, and whose small story is eclipsed by its considerable heart.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 6, 2023

In any other movie, the key character of Arthur, a soulful Jack Russell terrier, would draw all the attention away from the two-legged protagonists, but the performances by the three leads are so superb that everyone is able to share in the glory.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2023

Lovely. Graceful. Finely tuned into those characters, warts and all

| Jul 2, 2021

Topping off the tender tale is the cutest on-screen dog since Benji who provides unique insight into Oliver's emotional maturation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2021

At the very least, an Independent Spirit Award nomination should be assured here as Plummer embodies soulfulness and celebration and remarkable humanity all at once.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 2, 2020

Beginners manages to charm despite a tendency toward art-house cuddliness.

| Jan 17, 2020

The result is a ton of laughter, tears, a surprising out-of-character performance by Goran Visnjic as Plummer's boyfriend, and an adorable canine with more personality than most people.

| Mar 6, 2019

McGregor and Laurent are outstanding.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2019

It's OK, I suppose, and quite sweet. But I couldn't love it for proper, probably because its characters are always more interested in themselves than we are in them, plus it's just too self-consciously tricksy.

| Aug 31, 2018

Beginners wants to say something profound about the difficulties of committing to love, but Hal and Oliver are the only characters who come across as full-fledged people.

| Aug 29, 2018

Moving and intelligent, with a truly great cast.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2018

Every part of the film fits together perfectly, be it the acting, characters, story, direction; they're all perfect.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 30, 2018

... at its core, Beginners is about finding happiness, even at the end.

| Original Score: A | Sep 8, 2017

Plummer will take your breath away. As a man who learns it's never to late to fall in love (or lust), he may have wrapped up a best supporting Oscar.

| Aug 25, 2017

"Beginners" ultimately becomes so deeply resonant that you should pack some Kleenexes just in case.

| Oct 7, 2015

Mills needs to look up from the lint that's collected in his navel.

| May 12, 2015

Mike Mills treats love and loss with a disarming tenderness and a refusal of sentimentality that make Beginners, his second feature, something of an anomaly among male identity flicks. What a finely wrought, wryly funny, transcendently sad movie this is.

| Jul 12, 2013

It understands death better than it understands life; it understands memories more than it understands what to learn from them.

| Original Score: B | Jun 22, 2013

Beginners, beyond its pervasive atmosphere of melancholy and loss, suffers from a little self-indulgence. It's your typical indie drama.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 2, 2013