Becoming a conspiracy theorist is one of the top ten most embarrassing things anyone can become. But when it comes to your parents, it is extremely disappointing. Spain’s Netflix psychological thriller, truthfulIt tries to examine it through the new estrangement between a father and daughter following the demise of her mother and her insane obsession with pharmaceutical companies. ideal of conspiracy thriller truthful Despite solid analysis of solving one’s mystery through a growing sense of paranoia, it fails to accomplish much.
A Spaniard named Ruth (Stephanie Magnin) lives a mediocre life as a bartender in Berlin. He has not spoken to his parents for some time but suddenly he starts getting frequent calls. When she gets a call that her mother, Lucia (Fanny Gautier), has died in a freak accident, she rushes back to her Spanish hometown. Her father, Martín (José Coronado), a former Civil Guard officer, tells her the tragedy: Lucia had been drinking, taking a shower with the doors closed, and upon leaving she collapsed and died. Everyone tells her it was just an accident, but Ruth suspects that her mother’s death could not have been so meaningless. Her suspicions increased considering that she never knew her mother was drinking or had become an alcoholic in her absence. They “?” Hovering over him was a quick “?!” When she discovers that instead of grieving his late wife, Martin is too busy finding a missing boy and blaming his disappearance on a local pharmaceutical company, Certiux.
Los Criantes. Stephanie Magnin as Ruth in Los Creantes. Ten million. Matias Uris/Netflix © 2025
It doesn’t help that throughout her time together, her father has completely drunk the conspiracy theorist Kool-Aid and turned into someone she doesn’t even recognize: cursing repeatedly in front of her, listening to podcasts and watching videos he calls “research”, shooting guns, hiding cameras in the house, spending time with a new girlfriend Berta (Mabel del Pozo), and locking himself in his attic. And so, she begins to believe that her own father had some hand in her mother’s death.
truthful Completely engages you in Ruth’s plight, growing uneasily with each red flag raised by her father. If you’re the child of a parent who has succumbed to paranoia, screenwriters Carlos Monteiro and Dario Madrona accurately illustrate how easily parents in the digital age can become vulnerable to pervasive misinformation – losing their former self and severing their relationships with their children. If you’re looking at the film as a character study rather than a thriller, it succeeds on that front. In every conversation, Martin is mere seconds away from expressing his uninformed opinion about Certix, insisting that the company is kidnapping children and lying to everyone. Yes, plenty of corporations are guilty of socio-economic crimes, but Martin’s approach doesn’t stray too far from QAnon psychosis.
Throughout the film, Ruth tries to reconnect with her ex-boyfriend Aron (Alberto Olmo), who has cancer and works as a janitor at Certix. One of the strongest and most painful scenes comes when Ruth brings him home for dinner, and Martin pours out all his misinformation on her – it’s as uncomfortable as it is deeply sad.
Stephanie Magnin and Jose Coronado’s performances powerfully highlight the heavy burden and tragedy of this unraveling father-daughter relationship. Coronado delivers Martin’s nonsense with such assured confidence and toughness that it actually becomes infuriating if it goes on for too long, while Magnin slowly unravels the seams, increasing the film’s suspense. She effectively portrays the pressure she is under during her disappointing return home. There’s a lot weighing on Ruth, and Magnin conveys her intense emotions through real, grounded emotion.
truthful It also makes really good use of its mystical elements on the art and technical front. Keeping the seriousness of the narrative at the forefront, cinematographer Juana Jiménez creates a vibrant, colorful beauty in Spain, even in the most mundane of locations. Plus, the production design of Ruth’s spacious childhood home makes a nice foreground for the film’s underlying mystery – at least more so than its execution.
Los Criantes. Stephanie Magnin as Ruth, Jose Coronado as Martin in Los Creantes. Ten million. Matias Uris/Netflix © 2025
truthful‘One-note plotting makes it difficult to keep the audience engaged or create an entertaining mystery. The story sees Ruth going round and round, collecting Martin’s red flags at almost every story corner. Although the film seems to be getting deeper, it’s really just spinning its wheels. Director Roger Gual manages to craft an uneasy atmosphere with well-developed tension, but Montero and Madrona’s script never scratches beneath the surface of its premise or characters. This only highlights the disparity between the father-daughter relationship in one direction, actively undermining the mystery behind Lucia’s death. The psychological thriller structure feels ineffective, lacking any real urgency.
If you remove Ruth and Martin’s psychological cat-and-mouse game, there isn’t much at the center. The leads become more mouthpieces for the film’s themes than fully fleshed-out characters, which is a loss given the actors’ powerful portrayals. The same applies to the underdeveloped supporting cast – Aaron and Berta are cardboard cutouts, serving only to boost the dramatic elements. Although it tries to start a conversation about the harms of conspiracy theorists, the view is set quite narrowly. And then it takes a questionable last-act twist that raises more questions than answers, with very little groundwork done to earn its final swing.
This is disappointing because truthful Magnine has a solid, mysterious base with a strong performance. But the way it spins so simply, coupled with an underdeveloped story, makes this psychological conspiracy thriller nothing more than a generic story that could have lived up to its potential.
