Given its own aggressive attention deficit disorder, The Fifth Estate is the sort of movie that might induce a migraine.

| Feb 22, 2019

Those in the know say Cumberbatch's performance captures the physical Assange perfectly, but the film fails to get a handle on him as a personality, or offer any kind of insight into what his true motivation might be.

| Sep 5, 2018

Tthe film finally falls short, an explosive beginning leading to a pedestrian end.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 25, 2013

As nervy and as excitable as the trade that it depicts.

| Oct 21, 2013

The bullet points of WikiLeaks' rise and fall are dutifully covered, but the movie bites off more than it can chew...

| Oct 18, 2013

The Fifth Estate is also as current as a news feed, filling in the disputed facts about Assange's life beyond the headlines and chronicling the revolution that has upended the media landscape in the last decade.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2013

Director Bill Condon delivers an intelligent, dynamic, character-centered drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 18, 2013

Condon and his screenwriter Josh Singer don't quite know what to make of this duo, perhaps because the men didn't quite know what to make of each other, either.

| Original Score: C | Oct 18, 2013

"The Fifth Estate" feels unfortunately small and safe.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 18, 2013

A feeble, reactionary drama.

Full Review | Oct 18, 2013

"The Fifth Estate" tries to be a cross between "The Social Network" and "Zero Dark Thirty." Only it's more like "The Sociopath Network" meets "Zero Dumb Thirty."

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 18, 2013

It may be a bit chilly, but "The Fifth Estate" is good, scary information well-processed.

| Original Score: B | Oct 18, 2013

The problem with director Bill Condon's fictionalized account of all this is that, like WikiLeaks itself, there's way too much data to sift through.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 18, 2013

Like the journalists Assange worked with, it tries to put some shape and perspective on a story that is still too big and too new to frame as a definitive narrative.

| Original Score: B | Oct 17, 2013

The first narrative film portrait of the white-blond cyber bad boy feels undercooked and overwrought, haphazardly written and overdirected.

| Original Score: C | Oct 17, 2013

As much it claims urgency with current events and issues, it seems out of date, even coming just three years after the real events.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 17, 2013

The movie can't quite decide what it thinks of [Assange] - or even if it should decide at all.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 17, 2013

The movie feels both too soon and too late; an often skillful assemblage of bits and pieces, telling a story we already know and, ultimately, letting it fade away without an ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 17, 2013

A fairly dull thriller about a hugely influential Internet phenomenon.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 17, 2013

Exhausting in a new way, the movie is a data dump devoid of drama.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2013