There’s a lot jam-packed into this movie, but it’s in such a rush to get through it all and to not bore us that it … well, it bores us.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2024

At a certain point, it feels as if scenes are missing, and what’s left reads as unconvincing.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2024

An opulent drama about the last queen of Henry VIII.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 17, 2024

The film falls short of making memorable the struggle for power as Henry declines. Instead, “Firebrand” smolders rather than burns.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 15, 2024

Bolstered by splendid performances from Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, director Karim Aïnouz’s period piece, FIREBRAND, is a fascinating depiction of Katherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII.

Full Review | Jun 15, 2024

Katherine had to maintain a certain understated persona in order to survive, and Vikander accomplishes that quite well. Law is his usual superb self as Henry VIII

Full Review | Jun 15, 2024

A fitting portrait of a woman the film presents as ahead of her time.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jun 14, 2024

A kind of satisfaction ultimately arrives, but it is not one for purists, or even lovers of speculative history.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 14, 2024

Aïnouz's storytelling is a masterclass in subtlety and depth. ['Firebrand' is] a film that exists not in the obvious but in the spaces between the lines.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2024

The performances are the real centerpiece of Firebrand, and they are committed and fantastic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 14, 2024

Alicia Vikander and Jude Law anchor this handsome exercise in historical fiction, which meanders a bit before nicely paying off at the end.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2024

Law, one moment charming, the next threatening, and the radiant Vikander make Firebrand a fascinating, if choppy, feminist chapter in the voluminous Tudor film archives.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2024

Firebrand presents a compelling portrait of Catherine, whose quiet resilience and strategic acumen offered a nuanced view of female agency... But... seems too content to mostly shift focus away from Henry and call it a day.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2024

Faithful to the spirit, if not the letter, of the novel rather than to history, Aïnouz depicts a Katharine Parr who’s more reflective of twenty-first century feminist attitudes than those of the sixteenth, and does so at a...dramatically flaccid pace.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jun 14, 2024

Vikander & Law’s vivid performances make history exciting again.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jun 14, 2024

[G]iven what’s at stake, “Firebrand” is often a bit of a slog.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 14, 2024

Firebrand has some knockout performances that make it worth watching, particularly Alicia Vikander. However, the "been there done that" story does this excellent cast no favors.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2024

That Parr deserves a spotlight is easily argued. But the woman who believed herself chosen by God to influence the King is, despite Vikander’s skills, ill-served by this meandering, glum picture.

Full Review | Jun 14, 2024

Alicia Vikander gives Katherine Parr vitality and verve as a period feminist paving the way for women's independence despite the odds

Full Review | Jun 13, 2024

Can a film be both stodgy and subversive? Transgressive and tepid? Radical and rote? Firebrand lives in this near-constant state of contradiction, jostling its way through history with little to show for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 13, 2024