Don't Think Twice
The Film Arcade | Release Date: July 22, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJul 28, 2016
For a movie that involves creating laughs on the fly, the story is tightly told and acted, which adds to its buoyant pacing, astute observations and well-judged poignancy. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJul 20, 2016
Mike Birbiglia's Don't Think Twice stands as the best, most revealing film about comedy people and one of the best about artistic collaboration. It's a boisterous and sensitive work of many facets. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 19, 2016
It’s funny and inspiring and harsh and depressing. It’s steeped in existential dread. I don’t know how Birbiglia pulled it off, but he gets the minutiae of an improv-comedy show thrillingly right while using the form to build a kind of allegory of the corrosive effects of capitalism. Read full review
100
The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinMar 14, 2016
An honest and sharply drawn account of the eternal questions of ego, friendship, and sacrifice in the comedy world. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 14, 2016
A delicately wrought ensemble piece with first-rate turns by Gillian Jacobs, Keegan-Michael Key, and Birbiglia himself, Don't Think Twice scrutinizes its playful setting and finds an ideal entry point for exploring creative desperation. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 4, 2016
Birbiglia, whose previous feature was the well-received “Sleepwalk with Me,” has made a tiny gem, a delightful film as surprising as it is satisfying. Read full review
90
TheWrapSam FragosoJul 21, 2016
Don’t Think Twice is an impressive feat on all accounts. For a performer whose greatest virtue is his layered, detailed storytelling, Birbiglia has made a surprisingly impassioned love letter to improv comedy. Like the “yes, and…” art form itself, the movie shoots from the hip, ducks and dives unexpectedly, and excitingly. Read full review
90
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJul 19, 2016
Birbiglia films what he knows, offering ample and intricate scenes of improvisations performed onstage, along with an insider’s view of the industry. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 4, 2016
An immensely enjoyable, warmhearted, and gentle showbiz dramedy. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 4, 2016
A smart, wistful and very funny movie. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 28, 2016
A genuinely charming comedy about real people challenging themselves to create new realities for laughs and a little truth, one made-up scene at a time. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJul 22, 2016
So spot-on in its evocation of that whole "scene," onstage and off — its intimacy, competition, struggles and rhythms — that at times it feels like a documentary. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 22, 2016
It feels lived it, honest and painfully funny. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganJul 21, 2016
Don’t Think Twice isn’t all envy and self-doubt; Birbiglia has also crafted a love letter to improv, capturing the tempestuous and unforgiving art form in a way that only an insider could. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 21, 2016
Don’t Think Twice, which has a warm heart, could have been a much nastier movie. Yet its disappointed show-business hopefuls dreading their expiration dates make no bones about their insecurities. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 21, 2016
Don’t Think Twice really shines as an improv procedural, a film that celebrates, in illuminating detail, the skills and anxieties of this showbiz subgenre. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 20, 2016
As much as Don't Think Twice focuses on professional envy, though, it remains a love letter to this weirdo art form called improv. Read full review
80
VarietyDennis HarveyMar 14, 2016
Portraying a cutthroat business in which little is “fair,” Don’t Think Twice acknowledges the bloodshed, but applies the razor with enough empathetic delicacy to earn its cautiously upbeat fade. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 3, 2016
Birbiglia’s acute perspective will pertain to almost any industry in which a few are chosen to advance and the vast majority are left to wonder, “Why not me?” Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 4, 2016
A film that is at its best onstage. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 4, 2016
Don’t Think Twice is comedy inside-baseball, and it’s pretty delicious. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesDarel JevensJul 27, 2016
It’s a movie that fleshes out the people who entertain us, not with bemusement like a Christopher Guest mockumentary, but with compassion. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 20, 2016
Don’t Think Twice is the rare movie that’s immersed in improv as a subject, not a behind-the-scenes technique for goosing laughs. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJul 17, 2016
It displays an intimate chemical understanding of the exhausting and unrelentingly impotent agony of failure. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupApr 27, 2016
While Don’t Think Twice depicts a certain world with incisive specificity, its themes of what success truly means are universal to anyone involved in the arts. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczJul 20, 2016
Jack and Sam share a wonderful scene when performance and real life blur, which is the whole point of the movie. Read full review
67
Consequence of SoundRandall ColburnMar 14, 2016
Don’t Think Twice is a brisk, engaging watch. It’s sweet, it’s melancholy, and, perhaps most importantly, it’s hilarious. And despite the film’s soft teeth, it’s still the most honest and unfiltered exploration of improv comedy you’re likely to find out of Hollywood. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 1, 2016
It’s predictable, downright conventional, considering how much more “out there” his breakout film, “Sleepwalk With Me” (also about a struggling comic) was. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 20, 2016
After 2012’s similarly themed "Sleepwalk with Me," Birbiglia continues to mine a scene he knows well, and even though he doesn’t strike you as a natural-born filmmaker (some of these scenes are as flatly lensed as the Saturday Night Live sketches being spoofed), he’s evolving as a confrontational dramatist. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanAug 4, 2016
There’s nothing wrong with tackling romantic miscommunication, but Birbiglia’s script leaves little room for surprise or depth. Paradoxically, Don’t Think Twice feels both dramatically thin and overstuffed. Read full review
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