I really enjoyed this film on multiple levels. It is so funny, and it also got me thinking about our culture and the ways that false narratives travel.

| Original Score: B | May 10, 2024

Shelton is one of the best comedic directors working today.

| Apr 4, 2024

The routinely hilarious wordplay keeps viewers smiling, but Sword of Trust paints a picture of the troubling political undercurrents...

| Nov 8, 2023

Filled with outrageous humor and a genuine warmth, Sword of Trust is a great way to spend a summer afternoon or evening.

| Dec 7, 2022

...one of the best Trump-era movies designed specifically to address the complicated feeling of loving someone who held beliefs you didn’t agree with, as well as an astute examination of the grift and how even hucksters can get played by the right hand.

| Jun 15, 2022

a perfectly formed, drily witty, indie comedy that uses an outrageous situation to highlight some essential truths - and necessary falsehoods - about how we live with and love each other.

| Jan 3, 2022

With unexpected twists and eccentric characters, the film answers [its] question in ways that are both funny and thought-provoking...

| Oct 13, 2021

Lynn Shelton's latest presents the tiniest slice of modern American life wrapped up in a bow of financial desperation, revisionist history, and Internet paranoia.

| Oct 13, 2021

If you are a fan of Lynn Shelton's reliably entertaining, indie movies, you owe it to yourself to see Sword of Trust.

| Oct 13, 2021

Sword of Trust is a thoroughly entertaining, beautifully-crafted film helmed by a formidable female filmmaker.

| Oct 13, 2021

Poised between Christopher Guest and Mike Leigh, Lynn Shelton lets talented performers develop their characters, and it grounds the heightened premise to keep us in their side.

| Oct 13, 2021

Making the most of her exceptional cast, who are largely improving around a script written by Shelton and Mike O'Brien, this drama about a group of stranger all looking to profit from a valuable civil war artifact is easy, breezy entertainment.

| Oct 13, 2021

A quiet but charming - and at times, both surprisingly touching and laugh-aloud funny - entry in Shelton's indie filmography.

| Oct 13, 2021

Although the premise feels stretched, the script (co-written by Michael Patrick O'Brien) is smart and often very funny, and the film's affability is enhanced immeasurably by the charm of its cast.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2021

Sword of Trust is far from a mainstream film, making it not everyone's cup of tea. But for those willing to exercise a little patience, it has the type of performances and scenarios that make it well worth your while.

| Feb 18, 2021

Luckily, the filmmaker puts her trust in her actors... and gives them enough improv rope to allow them to feel like real people -- some of whom we would be glad to know.

| Jan 24, 2020

For all its awkwardness and unevenness, this is an endearing little film with well realised, three dimensional characters and some sharp observations to make about the intersections of far right ideology and capitalism.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 31, 2019

This is a hangout movie -- and I like hanging out with these people.

| Oct 2, 2019

Sword of Trust is funny. Laugh out loud so.

| Sep 5, 2019

Sword of Trust demands a little patient appreciation for improvisation over plot or characterization or camera angles, but with word play and sword play, Sword of Trust is filled with funny.

| Sep 3, 2019