Netflix’s new true-crime drama Unabomber arrived on the streaming platform on September 25, 2026, and critics are not impressed. The film, directed by Janus Metz, stars Jacob Tremblay as a young Ted Kaczynski and Russell Crowe as Harvard professor Henry Murray, alongside Shailene Woodley as a fictional FBI agent. With a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score from early reviews, the movie is being called a “filler” entry that fails to justify its own existence.
A Split Story That Never Comes Together
The film tries to do two things at once. One timeline follows Kaczynski’s time as a 16-year-old Harvard prodigy in the late 1950s, where he becomes a subject in Murray’s controversial psychological experiments. The other jumps to the 1990s for a by-the-numbers procedural about the FBI’s manhunt for the domestic terrorist.
Critics say these two halves never connect. Variety called it “two disparate but half-baked Unabomber projects have been unhappily welded together”. The Hollywood Reporter agreed, noting that “both narratives concern people prying into Kaczynski’s psyche and finding only further questions” and that “these twin analyses are both facile and unenlightening”.
Jacob Tremblay’s Performance Divides Reviewers
Tremblay, who broke out as a child star in Room and Wonder, takes on his darkest role yet. But many critics found him unconvincing. Variety wrote that Kaczynski is portrayed as “little more than a twitchy grab-bag of symptoms, played by Tremblay with a fractured little-boy-lost affect that is never altogether convincing”.
The Hollywood Reporter was harsher, placing “some of the blame on the actor playing Kaczynski, Jacob Tremblay, who long ago escaped the confines of Room and now, at 19, has found himself in this dark mess”. ScreenRant, however, found his performance “impressive in its detachment,” comparing it to a burdened mind and isolated outsider.
Russell Crowe and Shailene Woodley Do What They Can
Crowe plays Murray as a charismatic but manipulative figure who draws young Ted into his orbit. Variety called Crowe “the film’s most compelling figure,” noting he “cruises through the film” while remaining the most interesting presence. The script positions Murray as “the unwitting architect of Kaczynski’s psychosis,” though the film’s own argument is described as “pretty tenuous”.
Woodley plays Joanne Miller, a fictional FBI agent who pieces together the Unabomber puzzle. Variety described her role as “the stock role” of an agent “battling institutional sexism and investigative complacency”. Netflix’s own cast guide notes that Woodley saw a parallel between her character and Ted: “neither one of them is willing to back down from their intuition and their instincts”.
What the Film Gets Wrong About the Real Story
The real Ted Kaczynski carried out a mail-bombing campaign from 1978 to 1995 that killed three people and injured 23 others. The film suggests his participation in Murray’s Harvard experiments radicalized him. But Kaczynski himself denied this, saying the experience, while unpleasant, was not formative.
Vulture noted that “the film elides the thornier aspects of Kaczynski’s life and career” and that “there’s a story there, a complicated and disturbing one, but the new Netflix film Unabomber won’t be the one to give it to us”. ScreenRant criticized the film for having “a serious identity problem” and for accidentally glorifying its subject.
Where It Stands Among Other Unabomber Projects
Netflix has tackled this story before. The 2017 series Manhunt: Unabomber, starring Paul Bettany, holds a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score. The 2021 film Ted K, with Sharlto Copley, earned 85%. Variety noted that the new film lacks “the intensity” of Ted K, which “worked precisely because it didn’t try to crack or psychologize Kaczynski”.
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How to Watch
Unabomber is now streaming on Netflix worldwide. The film carries an R rating and runs 1 hour and 37 minutes. It is available in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and all other Netflix territories.
Stay tuned to VvipTimes for more honest reviews of the latest Netflix releases and true-crime dramas.
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