This is thought-provoking, perceptive film-making.

| Apr 30, 2020

It's a tough tale of adolescence and the preciousness of life that hits a whole new level of emotion in the aftermath of its life-altering event.

| Original Score: B | Apr 30, 2020

While [Lenny] Abrahamson's patience in setting the scene and establishing the social dynamics among the characters is admirable, his efforts make the film top-heavy with exposition and rather repetitive carousing sequences.

| Apr 30, 2020

The young, largely unknown cast are uniformly superb with Jack Reynor outstanding as Richard as he carries him from initial buoyant confidence into crisis and then, the final descent into self-flagellating acceptance.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 30, 2020

Up-and-coming actor Jack Reynor delivers an astonishing performance as Richard, evoking both sympathy and contempt from the audience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2020

In lesser hands, What Richard Did could have been a judgmental mess. Instead, it's a measured human drama set in a Dublin rarely seen on screen.

| Apr 30, 2020

The film has a mesmerisingly vivid things-just-happen feel to it.

| Apr 30, 2020

The director's devastating power resides in his ability to turn the before and after of his lead character's actions into a commanding and compassionate morality tale of cause and effect.

| Apr 30, 2020

If What Richard Did is sometimes a little too understated for its own good, this is still a classy piece of work which convincingly captures the emotionally complex, morally murky texture of real life.

| Apr 30, 2020

The acting could not be bettered, from the principals on down.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2020

[Lenny] Abrahamson also delivers the emotional goods, particularly in a beautifully acted scene between Richard and his father that is as surprising as it is believable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2020

DP David Grennan and [Lenny] Abrahamson have a fine touch with the volatile ensemble dynamics of kids with high energy, quick tempers and the fragile vulnerability of youth.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 30, 2020

It's simply staged but packs the kind of emotional heft which is rarely seen in such films.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 30, 2020

What Richard Did is undeniably a strong, at times powerful exploration of crime and punishment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 7, 2019

Where Abrahamson is beyond reproach, and, in fact quite masterly, is in the film's forensic dissection of its middle-class milieu.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 10, 2018

As smoothly shot as a classy ad, slow-moving and short on spark, What Richard Did compels with its sensitivity and technical diligence, but crawls along in terms of onscreen energy and narrative tension.

| Jul 31, 2018

[What Richard Did is] the most conventional work [Lenny] Abrahamson has produced so far, yet still markedly different from comparable teen pics.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2017

Newcomer Jack Reynor gives a startling, star-making performance in the slow-burn Irish drama What Richard Did... Consider this indie his Queens Boulevard, if you will.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 9, 2013

You may be shocked by your own reactions to "what Richard did," but you won't soon forget the movie in which he did them.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 15, 2013

Abrahamson's penetrating film asks - and does not answer - whether one viciously criminal moment is an aberration, or whether it reveals the weak, shabby person who was there all along.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 10, 2013