Its playful and energetic melodrama is a blast.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

To keep Shakespeare timely is the task sought after by every new adaptation, and Much Ado About Nothing belongs on a short list of films to celebrate the relevance of Shakespeare in cinema.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 22, 2022

Four hundred years later, the playwright's powerful, beautiful, utterly sincere thoughts and emotions continue to affect us.

| Feb 12, 2021

The film has the feel and sensibility of a bunch of good friends getting together to make a movie one weekend, and is exactly as charming as that sounds.

| Original Score: B | Jul 9, 2020

One of my Top Ten picks of the year. Welcome to the World of Whedon where Shakespeare not only lives, but thrives.

| Nov 27, 2019

The take-home message to this retold tale of social grace is this: talented wealthy people apparently stage fairly adorable Shakespearean recreations as a way to blow off steam. Not exactly a beer after a hard day's work, huh?

| Original Score: B | Aug 27, 2019

Small movements from the actors, their facial expressions, their delivery, coupled with [Joss] Whedon's slight visual humor made the entire film a joy to watch.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Aug 8, 2019

Spoken as written, the barbs fling, and yes, they are as funny now as in the 1590s.

| Jul 30, 2019

Much Ado About Nothing is light, good-humored fun. It's sparkly and summery and full of laughs, though the modern setting doesn't gel with the Elizabethan material quite as well as I'd hoped.

| Original Score: 7.7/10 | Apr 15, 2019

In a curious way, the central figure in the splendid new film of Much Ado About Nothing is the house in which the events unfold.

| Mar 7, 2019

Dressed up in black and white and decked out with endless decanters of wine, Much Ado is more elegant, more obviously grown-up, than much of Whedon's past work.

| Feb 26, 2019

A fun and welcome step forward for Whedon; both lively and mischievous, it's a film brimming with youthful vitality.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2019

If you want to introduce a phobic newcomer...to the works of William Shakespeare, director/scenarist Joss Whedon's film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is a great place to start.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 26, 2019

It offers a fresh take on material that is commonly only delivered one way, and that is always worth a look.

| Jan 14, 2019

Joss Whedon and Shakespeare? What a match made in heaven!

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 1, 2018

Joss Whedon's stab at the material is absolutely worthy, featuring some stellar performances and providing satisfying levels of depth through its direction that the dialogue alone does not convey.

| Oct 25, 2018

Much Ado About Nothing is fun, accessible and doesn't require an English degree to follow.

| Oct 25, 2018

"Much Ado About Nothing" is a delightful and worthy entry into the endless canon of Shakespeare adaptations.

| Aug 22, 2018

Joss Whedon's film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is an enchanting modern take on the 16th-century romance and a nearly perfect movie.

| Aug 20, 2018

DP Jay Hunter's camera floats like a butterfly through doorways and windows, stinging as it catches characters in moments of eavesdropping-inspired stunned epiphany.

| Apr 4, 2018