70
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
There is something undeniably exhilarating about the film’s honest assessment of the never-ending conflict between decency and cruelty that rages in every nation, neighborhood and heart.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
As a study of inflammation in the body politic, The Insult is engaged and astute. In comparison with “West Beirut,” though, it seems oddly programmatic in its moral layout, designed to prove that, in Wajdi’s phrase, “no one has a monopoly on suffering.” Some viewers will emerge from the cinema feeling more schooled than stirred.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
A highly political movie that's also a personal story of two men going head-to-head while the women around them are left to pick up the pieces, this gorgeously shot and classily acted feature might be a reel too long but is nonetheless a fascinating piece of work.
63
Ziad Doueiri's film is well acted and staged with periodic liveliness, but its earnestness grows wearying.
67
While it doesn’t quite justify the sprawling courtroom antics or the blunt metaphor they entail, the movie nevertheless provides a profound look at the effect of historical trauma on modern Lebanese society.
75
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
How Joelle Touma’s script progresses is heavy-handed in its desire to augment the tensions and provide justifications, but it’s still powerful nonetheless.
60
Toward the end, Doueiri attempts to give his two leads a little more nuance, but Tony’s overwhelming anger steamrolls over occasional conciliatory behavior, which winds up feeling just manipulative.
80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
It’s weighed down by symbolic significance, yet powerful and instructive all the same, with a few flickerings of black comedy.
60
The film can't be faulted for its attempt to argue for some kind of humane kinship and reconciliation, even if this attempt ends up dissolving the enmity in a sentimentality that, given what has come before, strains credibility.
70
Screen International by Lee Marshall
The film also has plenty to say about male stubbornness and the casual misogyny that lurks behind the apparent equality of Lebanese society.