60
Footnote is a decidedly male-centric film. Structurally, the picture is divided into named chapters that make for cute markers but give it the not-entirely satisfying feel of a jaunty satire.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
Joseph Cedar's Footnote is a sour, rather unpleasant affair that hinges on acts of Jews behaving badly.
80
Cedar's idiosyncratically brilliant script also has a moral question at its heart: Is lying to spare someone's feelings ever justified? Surely the Talmud has a thing or two to say about that.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
A father-son academic rivalry provides fodder for this caustic comedy set in the Talmud Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
100
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Footnote is itself a perfect little piece of Talmud, full of text, commentary, and colorful argument.
75
Movieline by Stephanie Zacharek
What Cedar captures here is the way a father and son can be bound so tightly they almost choke the air out of one another. You can't exactly call it affection; it's that far more complicated thing we call kinship.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
Jewish and academically inclined audiences worldwide will respond to numerous aspects of this unusual drama, although it is paradoxically both too broad and too esoteric for the general art house public.