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Carnal Knowledge

Carnal Knowledge

Drama · Romance · Comedy · 1971

Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.

Movie details

Carnal Knowledge

“Its time has come.”

1971 Drama · Romance · Comedy 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.9 / 10

15.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

89 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

77 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Carnal Knowledge?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

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After returning to Los Angeles from a group therapy session, documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife, Carol, find themselves becoming vigilante couples counselors, offering unsolicited advice to their best friends, Ted and Alice Henderson. Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons play along, but some latent sexual tension among the four soon comes bubbling to the surface, and long-buried desires don't stay buried for long.

Shortbus

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In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

Georgy Girl

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A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employer while attempting to please her glamorously stuck-up roommate Meredith.

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The Rules of Attraction

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The incredibly spoiled and overprivileged students of Camden College are a backdrop for an unusual love triangle between a drug dealer, a virgin and a bisexual classmate.

Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Freed

Drama · 2018

Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Mike Nichols

Written by

Jules Feiffer

Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson

Jonathan

Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen

Susan

Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel

Sandy

Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret

Bobbie

Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno

Louise

C

Cynthia O'Neal

Cindy

Carol Kane

Carol Kane

Jennifer

Court is in session

Put Carnal Knowledge on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.