Non-Fiction

R

Released May 3, 2019

1 hr. 48 min.

Comedy

Drama

Romance

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List

86%

154 Reviews

Tomatometer

51%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

Alain is in his 40s and runs a famous publishing house which publishes novels by his friend Léonard, a bohemian writer. Alain's wife, Selena, is the star of a popular TV series and Léonard's companion, Valérie, is the devoted assistant of a political figure. Although they are longtime friends, Alain is about to turn down Léonard's new manuscript, complicating the relationship between the two couples.

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Critics Consensus

Well-acted and sharply written, Non-Fiction finds writer-director Olivier Assayas working in a comedic vein that channels classic forebears while remaining utterly fresh.

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Audience Member

Non-Fiction is a film I would expect Woody Allen to write and direct. Hopefully he picks up rights to a remake, should there ever be one. This borderline esoteric and most certainly self-important film from Olivier Assayas is without the witty-worded dialogue, psychologically layered characters and cleverly thought-out and executed twists that we can often rely upon Woody Allen to produce. Instead, Assayas heavily occupies his far from engaging film with impenetrable dialogue and self-indulgent characters.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One of those series-of-conversations films that’s a whole genre of French cinema in and of itself, it follows the hypocritical lives of people complaining about their significant others cheating on them while they cheat on their significant others. (The question then, is if revenge is why they’re cheating in the first place?) Why the producers thought that Non-fiction would be a better title for English-language audiences is a mystery. The original Double Lives is more apt, or perhaps one of the jokes of the film, “Auto-fiction”. The acting is terrific with a top-notch cast.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/12/20

Full Review

Audience Member

Somehow, a movie that contains several scenes of French artists, actors, writers, and publishers, sitting around a room eating and drinking wine, discussing the future of the literary world did NOT come off as pretentious. The title is a misnomer, as Léonard's (Vincent Macaigne) books are clearly autobiographical, as much as he tries to deny it — he refers to his work as "autofiction," a term I will be stealing. These Parisians, as the stereotypes go, can't seem to keep it in their pants, and are all cheating on their significant others (sometimes with each other's significant others), except for Valérie (Nora Hamzawi), who is cold and unlikeable at first, but by the end is the most endearing character. Valérie also has the chillest reaction to being told she has been cheated on that has ever made its way on screen. This definitely is not the film for everyone, and some of the business conversations concerning hard copies and e-books and the future of publishing seemed a bit dated, like they were having a conversation for 2015 in 2019. I'd like to see a sequel if only to see whether Selena (Juliette Binoche) actually kills Léonard, who is back on his bullshit.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Congrats to the writer, director and actors. They were so good that I did not realize this was a bad movie until it was over. Every French stereotype is confirmed here. They love to eat, drink, talk, talk, talk and have affairs. And all of this with no emotion. And not a single laugh. Uggh, a well-paced story about nothing.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

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Audience Member

Dobles vidas [2019]

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

dave d

I found 'Non-Fiction' insufferable, unfunny, and a near total bore. The performances aren't bad and that's the only reason this film gets the score that it does. What does one learn from Olivier Assayas' latest? The filmmaker needs to make bolder decisions and maybe cast someone more believable in the role of the guy who is overweight, bald, depressed, frumpy and just overall miserable in a role where he has a beautiful powerful wife and a hot actress girlfriend. Couldn't buy it and it took me out of the movie. The film just doesn't work unless except in it's own self-importance. Final Score: 4.0/10

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Olivier Assayas

Director

Guillaume Canet

Alain

Juliette Binoche

Selena

Vincent Macaigne

Léonard

Christa Théret

Laure

Nora Hamzawi

Valérie

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Non-Fiction: Trailer 1

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Mark Kermode

Kermode & Mayo's Film Review

Two hours of French naval-gazing about smoking, drinking, complaining...

Oct 24, 2019

Full Review

Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

On balance, writer and director Assayas just about pulls it off: the film is uneven, certainly, but the fascinating, flawed characters reel us in.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 20, 2019

Full Review

Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

It sounds farcical, but it's also a serious work from the writer-director Olivier Assayas and his key performers that interrogates the nature of literary value today through the words of uncommonly rounded and deeply appealing characters.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 18, 2019

Full Review

Violet Lucca

Harper's Magazine

Olivier Assayas’s latest film holds on to the old world while recognizing the new.

Aug 21, 2023

Full Review

Gisela Savdie

El Heraldo

The movie takes unexpected turns, and moves between fiction and reality [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: A

Aug 10, 2023

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

It questions, in the key of social criticism and long talks, the traps of the digital age, but its sophisticated side loses the effect of irony in a second half marked by redundancy and a excessive verbal transparency. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Nov 5, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Alain is in his 40s and runs a famous publishing house which publishes novels by his friend Léonard, a bohemian writer. Alain's wife, Selena, is the star of a popular TV series and Léonard's companion, Valérie, is the devoted assistant of a political figure. Although they are longtime friends, Alain is about to turn down Léonard's new manuscript, complicating the relationship between the two couples.

Director: Olivier Assayas
Executive Producer: Sylvie Barthet
Screenwriter: Olivier Assayas
Distributor: Sundance Selects
Production Co: Arte, CG Cinéma, Vortex Sutra, Playtime, Axia Films
Rating: R (Some Language|Sexuality/Nudity)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): May 3, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 3, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $704.9K
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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