Film Review: THE REVISIONIST: Alison Brie is Exceptional in a Movie That Writers Will Appreciate More Than Others [Tribeca 2026]

The Revisionist Review

The Revisionist (2026) Film Review from the 25th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Alex Vlack and starring Alison Brie, Dustin Hoffman, André Holland, Tom Sturridge, Max Cortezi, Andrew Kite, Shealyn Kite, Nancy Leal, Rebecca Lines, Fiona Robert, James Arthur Sims, Anna Zhang, Victoria Cabral, Gary Gosselin and Sean McBride.

Filmmaker Alex Vlack has crafted a movie in the vein of Ruby Sparks, but to tell you even that would ruin the many twists that are found in Vlack’s new picture, The Revisionist. Well, Ruby Sparks was something a bit different, however, The Revisionist is also a film about a writer who brings a very creative story into fruition – this time, the author is a female named Elise Keller (Alison Brie). This new film keeps things interesting throughout its brief 90-minute running time although it throws in one too many surprise twists willy-nilly at the end.

Tom Sturridge portrays Jacob, Elise’s husband. As the film’s story begins, Elise reunites with an old friend, John, played by André Holland. Writing is a formidable presence in this friend’s life who has a history of very prestigious work. Meanwhile, Elise struggles with writer’s block and is inspired by her own husband’s dad, another former writer named David (Dustin Hoffman), who is a true creative force in and of himself.

The Revisionist is a movie about the art of creating characters and events. Elise steals ideas to make her life seem better than it is and also creates scenarios that help her cope with the inevitable disappointment that she discovers in certain aspects of her life. All bets are off when steamy romance comes into play between Elise and another key character, but maybe that’s too much of a reveal in a movie that keeps turning into something different with each passing moment and is driven by a score that packs a punch and gives the movie a lot of artsy pizzazz.

The act of inspiration comes through actual creation, not before creation, in Vlack’s intelligent movie. This film takes too many sharp turns, though, that are meant to surprise but can frustrate just as much as entertain viewers. Brie is the glue that holds it together for the first half with the men beside her, Holland and Sturridge, taking up space in the story as nothing more than catalysts to advance the plot of the film and the movie within the film (which is actually a piece of writing in and of itself).

Hoffman surprisingly commandeers the second part of the movie with a performance that shows why he has always been a living legend. David is a man with much experience and has enough of a life story to tell that the details could make themselves present in another person’s story if he’s not careful and, at his age, he certainly has plenty of wisdom to disperse that writers may want to be “inspired” by.

Holland and Sturridge both try their hardest to make their characters leap off the screen and sometimes succeed. Holland has a meatier role than Sturridge by the way the plot favors John over Jacob or maybe Elise just wants to have the best of both worlds. Does she just wish she had to choose between two men or is she actually torn between two men? This film does toy with that subject matter significantly.

Ruby Sparks was about a writer who made his main character do whatever he wanted her to do. In The Revisionist, Elise makes her characters do what she wants them to do, but are they real or simply figments of her imagination and/or characters in a story? The Revisionist has a lot of fun with its concept although occasionally it relies too much on screen veteran Hoffman to bail the movie out of trouble when the film runs out of steam about an hour and ten minutes in.

That being said, Brie is very enjoyable in this role as a puppet master of sorts. She keeps the writing happening with or without help and fights a case of nasty writer’s block with wild occurrences that may just be real and not a story. Do you catch my drift? This movie never wants the viewer to know what is real and what isn’t until the cat is let out of the bag right at the film’s climax.

Brie and Hoffman are masters of the acting game. Hoffman has many years experience playing great roles from those in films like Midnight Cowboy to Tootsie to Rain Man and beyond. He doesn’t need anyone to tell him how to create a masterfully conceived character who is wise beyond his years. It’s second nature to him. As David’s son, Sturridge keeps things moving along in the plot thanks to the creative screenplay here which enhances Jacob’s presence in the story with every passing moment.

The Revisionist is a really good time for writers. However, some of its ideas are overly simplistic. Writers create in a complex fashion, but the movie just pulls the rug out from everything that happens one time too often to please everybody. Maybe this movie needed a few revisions itself, but it deserves a pass anyway. Hoffman and Brie are the reasons why.

Rating: 7/10

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