Metacritic reviews

As a portrait of bogus revolutionary rhetoric used to undermine and control women, it’s thoughtful and provocative.

This is an innovative, occasionally provocative, often frustrating film, but one whose perspectives on guilt and victimhood offer a new angle on a notorious case.

If nothing else, Charlie Says succeeds in demystifying the man with a pentagram carved into his skull: He may be society’s go-to conception of evil, but he was also a drugged-out racist who wrote forgettable songs that even his acolytes probably didn’t enjoy as much as they were letting on.

The film Harron delivers is so ambivalent as to be frustratingly gun-shy about truly asserting a point of view, or adding anything meaningful to the already thriving cottage industry of Manson-adjacent storytelling.

The film appears to be striving for humanistic understanding, but the end result is far too jumbled to have the proper impact.

[A] bland, sometimes dull film ... Those unfamiliar with the history of the Manson Family murders won’t gain any real understanding of the crimes or the character of those who committed them, while those who know the details won’t get any new insights into it either.

It has none of the brilliance and insight of Emma Cline’s 2016 novel The Girls, on roughly the same subject.

Skimpy psychological insight, a clumsy structure and what turns out to be a miscast Smith all contribute towards what seems like a wasted opportunity.

Charlie Says ... missed a chance to explore the psychology of a cult and instead feels like a gauzy art installation without much focus.

A very strained attempt to understand the motivations of the women who killed for Charles Manson.