Director James Ponsoldt (who adapted the book with Eggers) barely develops any character besides Watson's, piling on narrative complications instead.

| Apr 9, 2020

Bland performances from talented actors, and boring direction from a very talented director, and awful editing...

| Original Score: D | May 12, 2018

An idea in a Hollywood thriller is almost an accident now, so The Circle deserves praise for thoughtfulness.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 23, 2017

I won't presume to know how familiar the filmmakers are with social media, but I can say that The Circle feels like an anti-social media tirade written by someone who tried sending a tweet once and decided he hated it.

| Jun 5, 2017

Floats many intriguing ideas, then lets them drop with a thud.

| May 11, 2017

Even as it focuses on why information just wants to be free, "The Circle" is stuck in a loop.

| Original Score: C | May 5, 2017

It's a shame, because this is an enviable cast, and the occasional good scene hints at the social thriller or topical satire this could have been. Instead, it's just kind of a mess.

| May 4, 2017

This might have worked as a digital-age social satire... Instead, the movie opts for paranoia on par with forgetting your password, never mining the depth of the real Big Brother fears underlying our interconnected existence.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 4, 2017

As a satire, The Circle might have been worth a few giggles, but as a deadly serious drama, it's laughable in an entirely different way.

| May 2, 2017

I'm still wrapping my head around this film, but I'm not so sure if director James Ponsoldt himself knows what a comedy this is.

Full Review | May 1, 2017

The kind of spectacular failure that requires all participants to be on the same page, working together as one with fevered commitment toward making a disaster, "The Circle" couldn't be timelier or more exasperating.

| Apr 30, 2017

The future is now and it's scary. Too bad The Circle isn't.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 30, 2017

The Circle is a bafflingly bad movie.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 28, 2017

Eggers' book pushes past satire into dark farce, where the story's hyperbole feels more like a gag than a coherent warning about the future. The film version doesn't even feel pointed enough to be satire.

| Apr 28, 2017

This is one of the most crashing letdowns of 2017.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 28, 2017

This is one of those movies that has nothing and everything wrong with it. It's frustrating in a singular way.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 28, 2017

It's so cartoony and ham-fisted it sabotages its own argument.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 28, 2017

The Circle is a big honking sloppy mess of a movie, one that flops around so aimlessly that it's baffling so many intelligent people had a hand in making it.

| Original Score: D+ | Apr 28, 2017

Director Ponsoldt excels directing women (think Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smash). The Circle is a female-driven story set in a male-dominated industry with Emma Watson presenting a layered performance in a believable American vernacular.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 28, 2017

Movies about the dangers of rampant interconnectivity are welcome in this day and age, but let's please make them a little more courageous.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 28, 2017