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Animal Factory
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
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  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Amy Taubin
    80
    Tender, poignant, and homoerotically charged, this complicated father-son relationship is brought to life by two brilliant actors and a director who's canny enough to give them all the room they need.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gene Seymour
    80
    One of the least sensationalistic--and therefore, more unsettlingly plausible--visions of prison life ever transfigured into big-screen drama.
  3. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    75
    A genre-busting film that deserves to be seen.
    All this critic's reviews
  4. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Buscemi's directing blends hard-hitting visual qualities with great emotional energy.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    75
    A wonderfully acted, strangely low-key prison movie.
    All this critic's reviews
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    70
    It's a guy's film that doesn't just revel in testosterone, though -- it has a more purposeful agenda.
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    70
    Willem Dafoe steals the picture with his comic timing.
  8. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (not credited)
    70
    In one of his best leading screen turns, Dafoe makes a potentially unlikely construct into a fascinating, full-blooded figure.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    There's something surprisingly sweet at the center of this grim prison drama.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    60
    What enrich the film are its layers of detail -- moronic racial protocols, turf wars, pecking orders, men as livestock -- the authenticity of the dialogue and the rich range of characters.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    (Rourke's) nearly unrecognizable presence is characteristic of the odd pockets of talent (and, sometimes, lint) in Steve Buscemi's film.
  12. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    You come away with the sense that you should have come to care (or at least to know) more about its central characters than you do.
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