Title – Unabomber (2026)
Director – Janus Metz (All the Old Knives)
Cast – Jacob Tremblay, Russell Crowe, Shailene Woodley, Annabelle Wallis
Plot – Tells the story of the notorious Unabomber killer Ted Kaczynski (Tremblay), including his time at college under the guidance of lecturer and researcher Henry Murray (Crowe).
“Madness can leave a trace”
Review by Eddie on 07/10/2026
If there was ever a “movie of the week” example in action, it would be perfectly apt and suited for Netflix’s Unabomber film.
Recently making a good solid dent in streaming viewership figures for the streaming giant, the Janus Metz directed and Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay and Shailene Woodley led film is such a generic and pedestrian affair that it’s hard to get excited either negatively or positively for a film that is merely walking through the motions, on its way to delivering a viewing experience that is watchable but far from memorable or engaging.
Having trouble sticking too closely to the truth, Metz’s film follows a young Ted Kaczynski (Tremblay) as his college life is influenced by his working relationship with college professor Henry Murray (Crowe) who engages Ted in a potentially dangerous set of experiments while also incorporating the extensive FBI hunt of Kaczynski into the mid 90’s that is mostly dominated here by Woodley’s cookie-cutter agent Joanne Miller.
Working neither greatly as a police procedural thriller, an emotionally resonate character study or a dramatization of experiments that push the boundaries of good science, Unabomber struggles to juggle its various ingredients and even though on a surface level there’s a range of intriguing narrative elements at play here Metz is unable to grab hold of them, leaving viewers feeling frustrated by such an unexciting experience and his talented cast left with little to do but collect their pay cheques.
Still feeling out his career after making huge early marks with his turns in Room and Wonder, Tremblay continues to try and push away from his clean-cut image but feels slightly mis-cast here as the cagey and complicated Kaczynski, while Crowe and Woodley have been far better many times before, even if it’s nice to see Crowe attempt to show more interest in what is appearing to be a later career resurgence as such as the Oscar winner straps back into the saddle in more significant ways.
The sad, scary and complex story of Kaczynski and his multi-decade spanning reign of terror in the United States is certainly the type of material that is deserving of a memorable dramatic deep dive, something with far more meat on the bones that this sub-100-minute Netflix experience as viewers would be better off advised seeking out more factual written explorations or documentary products than giving up their valuable time on this latest Netflix film that comes and goes without any reason to care.
Final Say –
The multi-layered life and times of Ted Kaczynski aren’t developed in Unabomber to any great effect, leaving this far from factual star-studded offering floundering to give us a reason to be invested.
2 dilapidated shacks out of 5
