Back to trending
King Lear

King Lear

Drama · TV Movie · 2018

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Movie details

King Lear

2018 Drama · TV Movie 1h 55m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

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 King Lear?

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.

The Piano Lesson

The Piano Lesson

Drama · 2024

A brother and sister's battle over a prized heirloom piano unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived — and who defines a family legacy.

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius

Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius

Drama · 2004

The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.

My Dinner with Hervé

My Dinner with Hervé

Drama · 2018

An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.

Cheaters

Cheaters

Drama · 2000

In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Drama · 2012

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Skin

Skin

Drama · 2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Vanya on 42nd Street

Vanya on 42nd Street

Drama · 1994

An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

Drama · 2013

In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.

Hamlet

Hamlet

Drama · 1996

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Drama · 1972

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Richard Eyre

Written by

Richard Eyre

Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins

Lear

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson

Goneril

Emily Watson

Emily Watson

Regan

Jim Broadbent

Jim Broadbent

Earl of Gloucester

Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh

Cordelia

Jim Carter

Jim Carter

Earl of Kent

Andrew Scott

Andrew Scott

Edgar

Court is in session

Put King Lear 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 Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

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