Carnal Knowledge
Reception

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

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External reception

6.9
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 18,260 votes
7.2/10 802 votes Synced 2026-07-20
6.9/10 17,208 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 7.1/10 14 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 7.7/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 7.2/10 Synced 2026-07-17
Critics 8.9/10 Synced 2026-07-17
6.6/10 236 votes Synced 2026-09-12

External reviews

Roger Ebert · Chicago Sun-Times 100.00/100.00

Carnal Knowledge is clearly Mike Nichols' best film. It sets out to tell us certain things about these few characters and their sexual crucifixions, and it succeeds.

synced 2026-07-19
Staff (Not Credited) · Variety 50.00/100.00

Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowlede is a rather superficial and limited probe of American male sexual hypocrisies.

synced 2026-07-19
Vincent Canby · The New York Times 100.00/100.00

More than any other film Nichols has made, Carnal Knowledge reminds me of his stage work at its best, particularly of the highly stylized Luv in which low comedy techniques were employed to illuminate material that might otherwise seem too cruel, or too anti‐heroic for a dramatic medium.

synced 2026-07-19
Staff (Not Credited) · Time Out 50.00/100.00

As a slice of familiar Feiffer cynicism, tracing the arid sex life of two contrasting males from eager college days to drained middle age, this was never quite the major assault on sexism and male chauvinism it set itself up to be.

synced 2026-07-19
Staff (Not Credited) · TV Guide Magazine 90.00/100.00

An uneven but unusually thoughtful melodrama, Carnal Knowledge avoids most of the the trendy excesses that make some other films of its era so difficult to watch today.

synced 2026-07-19
Dave Kehr · Chicago Reader 50.00/100.00

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.

synced 2026-07-19

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