David Harris Spectrum Culture May 12, 2026

In Carnal Knowledge, we are seeing the grotesque core of the male psyche, the embodiment of the minds that led women to stand up against them with the #MeToo movement.

Go to Full Review

Derek Smith Slant Magazine Jul 21, 2025

Mike Nichols’s divisive fourth feature is a fascinating cultural artifact.

Go to Full Review

Joshua Ryan FandomWire Jul 17, 2025 7/10

Nichols, holding the rare honor of the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winner), excels at bringing the best out of his performers.

Go to Full Review

Frank J. Avella The Contending Jul 15, 2025 B

Feiffer has a way of capturing men and their inflated egos—that competitive nature—but also the disgusting way they see women, in such an honest manner that it’s often painful to watch.

Go to Full Review

David Elliott Chicago Daily News Oct 3, 2023

[Jules Feiffer and Mike Nichols] have made a film that is hard but not cynical, clever but not superficial and, as movies go, quite important.

Go to Full Review

Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Nov 29, 2022 B

Some of the scenes are so emotionally harsh as to provoke gasps.

Go to Full Review

Neely Swanson Easy Reader (California) Aug 29, 2022

Brilliantly directed, Nichols focused on closeups to reveal character, aided enormously by Feiffer’s incisive dialogue and story.

Go to Full Review

Kyle Smith National Review Jun 30, 2021

Carnal Knowledge may be an acid bath, but it strips a certain kind of man right down to the bone.

Go to Full Review

Paul D. Zimmerman Newsweek Feb 12, 2020

Nichols has broken thoroughly now with his stage beginnings, integrating camera and action easily, using space and silence with the fluency of a man at home behind a lens.

Go to Full Review

Antonio Lara El Pais (Spain) Jul 23, 2019

A sharp reflection about the relationship between young men and women. [Full Review in Spanish]

Go to Full Review

Barbara Shulgasser Common Sense Media Jul 19, 2016 4/5

Frank '70s coming-of-age tale has lots of sex, profanity.

Go to Full Review

Sean Axmaker Turner Classic Movies Online Jan 29, 2009

... an acerbic and, in many ways, dispiriting portrait of masculinity and male sexuality in the post-World War II culture.

Go to Full Review

Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Nov 11, 2008 B

A pretentious and uneven provocative moralistic adult drama about coping with the "sexual revolution" among the middle-class males.

Go to Full Review

Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Aug 3, 2008 5/5

Ah, the sweet smell of '70s American cinema when anything was possible.

Go to Full Review

Variety Staff Variety Feb 8, 2008

A rather superficial and limited probe of American male sexual hypocrisies.

Go to Full Review

Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Feb 8, 2008

The picture has its moments of chilling insight, though essentially it is one more quaint early-70s stab at an American art cinema that never materialized.

Go to Full Review

Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Apr 23, 2007 A-

Misunderstood by critics and viewers, Nichols' satire of male chauvinism is by turns witty, provocative, funny, and depressing. The film was so controversial in 1971 that it went all the way to the Supreme Court for obscenity charges.

Go to Full Review

Tom Milne Time Out Feb 9, 2006

This was never quite the major assault on sexism and male chauvinism it set itself up to be.

Go to Full Review

Rebecca Murray About.com Sep 13, 2005 4/5

Go to Full Review

Linda Cook Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) Aug 7, 2005 4/5

Go to Full Review