Philadelphia is a heartbreakingly mediocre movie. It’s dishonest, it’s often legally, medically, and politically inaccurate, and it breaks my heart that I must say it’s simply not good enough and I’d rather people not see it at all.

| Jun 3, 2022

Philadelphia may not be the film Demme's fans expect--its emotionalism is unfiltered by cool. But it has the power to open more than a few blinkered hearts.

| Mar 13, 2015

[An] extremely well-made message picture about tolerance, justice and discrimination is pitched at mainstream audiences, befitting its position as the first major Hollywood film to directly tackle the disease.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2008

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Safe and apolitical it may be, but Philadelphia succeeds as a deeply affecting humanist drama.

| Jun 24, 2006

In the guise of piety, Philadelphia panders to a perceived straight-male majority.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 6, 2004

"Philadelphia" mostly succeeds in being forceful, impassioned and moving, sometimes even rising to the full range of emotion that its subject warrants. But too often, even at its most assertive, it works in safely predictable ways.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 20, 2003

Arguably, the horror of death from Aids has been sanitized for popular consumption, but nevertheless it is a brave and commendable effort.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2001

It's less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.

| Jan 1, 2000

This AIDS courtroom drama is so pumped full of nitrous oxide, you could get your teeth drilled on it.

| Jan 1, 2000

Philadelphia breaks no new dramatic ground ... And yet Philadelphia is quite a good film, on its own terms.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Comprised of enough 'little moments' that provide all the richness and grace we need to get us past the film's more inelegant moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: B- | Dec 22, 1993