J. Edgar

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “J. Edgar is a somber, enigmatic, darkly fascinating tale, and how could it be otherwise?”

  Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times · 90

• “DiCaprio may well receive a Best Actor Oscar for his tour de force as the conflicted FBI director -- greatly abetted by Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in "The Social Network'') in his first major role as the flamboyant but frustrated Tolson.”

  Lou Lumenick, New York Post · 88

• “As a period biopic, J. Edgar is masterful. Few films span seven decades this comfortably.”

  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times · 88

• “This surprising collaboration between director Clint Eastwood and "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black tackles its trickiest challenges with plausibility and good sense, while serving up a simmeringly caustic view of its controversial subject's behavior, public and private.”

  Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter · 80

• “Mr. Eastwood doesn't just shift between Hoover's past and present, his intimate life and popular persona, he also puts them into dialectic play, showing repeatedly how each informed the other.”

  Manohla Dargis, The New York Times · 80