"Fuck" received mixed reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating with an average rating of 5.8/10 based on 72 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "A documentary that sets out to explore a lingual taboo but can't escape its own naughty posturing." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted-mean rating from 0–100 based on reviews by film critics, the film has a rating score of 58 based on 23 reviews (a mixed, or average, film). The American Film Institute wrote, "Ultimately, "Fuck" is a movie about free speech ... Freedom of expression must extend to words that offend. Love it or hate it, fuck is here to stay".