Movie · 2005 · Crime, Drama · 1h 54m · R · English
Curator score: 7.4/10 (255K ratings)
In New York City, he was the ultimate insider. But out here, he was on the outside, looking in.
Overview
A biopic of writer Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book "In Cold Blood".
Ratings
Curator score: 7.4/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.71/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 88
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Bennett Miller
Production
United Artists, A-Line Pictures, Cooper's Town, Infinity Media, Sony Pictures Classics, Eagle Vision
Cast
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, Mark Pellegrino, Marshall Bell, Amy Ryan, Bess Meyer, Chris Cooper, Allie Mickelson, Craig Archibald, Bronwen Coleman, Kate Shindle, David Wilson Barnes, Michael J. Burg, Kwesi Ameyaw, Andrew Farago, Kelci Stephenson, C. Ernst Harth
Where to watch
fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharply acted, chilly character study that’s less about the mechanics of In Cold Blood than about Capote’s vanity, hunger, and self-destruction. It’s especially rewarding if you value performance-driven dramas and morally complicated biographical films.
Best for
Philip Seymour Hoffman showcase performances
literary biopics and writer stories
slow-burn prestige dramas
true-crime adjacent character studies
films about ambition, manipulation, and moral compromise
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy crime thriller
you dislike restrained, talky dramas
you prefer biopics that feel emotionally expansive
you’re looking for a straightforward true-crime adaptation
Overview
Capote is built around a remarkable central performance, and the film knows it. Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn’t imitate Truman Capote so much as inhabit him, capturing the voice, posture, wit, and self-protective cruelty with unnerving precision. The result is a portrait of a man who is brilliant, needy, and often deeply unpleasant, yet impossible to stop watching.
Worth noting
Bennett Miller keeps the film cool and controlled, which suits the material even when it leaves some emotional distance. Rather than turning the story into a conventional crime drama, it focuses on the uneasy exchange between writer and subject, and on the cost of turning real suffering into art. That restraint can feel almost too tasteful at times, but it also gives the film its uneasy aftertaste.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the tension between empathy and exploitation. Capote is not a warm movie, but it is a precise one, and its best scenes are about the seductions of intelligence, celebrity, and access. If you’re drawn to performance-first prestige cinema, this is essential viewing; if you need momentum or catharsis, it may feel too airless.
Top Letterboxd reviews
fran hoepfner (4★) · 1391 likes
Noooo don't brutally murder a family your so sexy aha
Zakaria Bessaâd (3★) · 1015 likes
⭐⭐⭐ For the movie
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For Philip Seymour Hoffman
Thomas McCallum (3.5★) · 494 likes
Performances : 9.1/10Story : 6.1/10Production : 7.2/10Overall : 7.47/10
I wasn't in love with this film, the story was pretty lackluster. Luckily Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in it, and boy does he steal the show. He takes on the role of Truman Capote in such a way that I honest to god forgot that it was Hoffman.
Watch this for his performance, if for no other reason.
Madison 🎭 (3.5★) · 477 likes
philip won the oscar for just acting gay....... as he should have!
matt lynch (3★) · 414 likes
i feel like this wants to be suggestive, unsettling and quietly objective, but to me it just feels...tasteful. and wasn't this guy a brilliant writer? we barely get a sense of that beyond it being indicated by his celebrity status.