Poolman Reviews Say Chris Pine’s Directorial Debut Is One of 2023’s Worst Movies

Early reviews of Poolman, a new comedy mystery film directed by Chris Pine, are calling it one of the worst movies of 2023.

Poolman marks the directorial debut of Pine, the actor known for starring in Star Trek, Wonder Woman, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and more. Co-written by Pine and Ian Gotler, Poolman premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 11, 2023.

Poolman gets bad buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival

Early reviews coming out of TIFF are calling Poolman one of the worst movies of the year.

Twitter user Big Screen Leaks wrote, “POOLMAN is far and away the worst film I’ve seen all year. There are zero redeeming qualities about this film and I’m shocked that it exists. Chris Pine thought that having the plot of Eminem’s ‘Stan’ be integrated into this was somehow a good idea, as well as naming characters Jack and Diane. For the second year in a row, DeWanda Wise is in the worst movie of the year and she deserves better. There’s a line in the film where a character says ‘I’ve had a really hard week.’ Well, I just had a really hard 100 minutes. An absolute embarrassment.”

IndieWire’s Siddhant Adlakha called Poolman “one of the worst movies to ever play at a major festival, putting Pine’s position as Hollywood’s best Chris in serious jeopardy.”

Journalist Rendy Jones, meanwhile, tweeted that they walked out of the movie at the 40-minute mark, while The Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Rechtshaffen said, “[The movie] gets lost in the shrill goofiness of a concept, which, at best, feels like the sort of half-baked SNL character sketches that tend to get buried in the slot following the second musical performance.”

Poolman, which is described as “a love letter to Los Angeles” in the same vein as Chinatown, stars Pine alongside Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Ariana DeBose, Jennifer Jason Leigh, DeWanda Wise, Ray Wise, Juliet Mills, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Clancy Brown. The movie is still searching for a distributor and, therefore, does not yet have a wide release date.