The History Boys Critic Reviews

History Boys boasts a dazzling verbal cleverness--the gleeful rat-a-tat of snappy banter expertly executed--that doesn't keep it from also being deeply, exquisitely sad.Read the full review

A shrewdly acted, bittersweet comedy.Read the full review

Wildean panache of this caliber is not the norm in movie dialogue, so on this score alone, The History Boys is a blessing. The top-drawer work of a fine ensemble is another.Read the full review

The current of intellectual energy snapping through the ferociously engaging screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play feels like electrical brain stimulation.Read the full review

The screen, like the stage, can barely contain this marvelous play of intelligence.Read the full review

The History Boys is an erudite, sharply written film with consummate performances, but its origins on the stage are all too obvious.Read the full review

The film can't hide its stage origins, and in cutting almost an hour on the journey from stage to screen some resonance is lost. But Bennett's dialogue sparkles and skewers with killer wit. Dig in.Read the full review

The History Boys is as much about the meaning and value of reading and learning as it is about the ho-humness of genital fondling by sir with love.Read the full review

A lively and entertaining disquisition on the purpose and uses of knowledge in a world that cares less about scholarship than quantifiable results.Read the full review