Babyteeth
IFC Films | Release Date (Streaming): June 19, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 17, 2020
Under Murphy’s direction, the tone is darkly comic — not what you’d expect given that plot synopsis but to which the actors respond with deftness and creativity, like downhill skiers facing a challenging slalom. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJun 16, 2020
Murphy isn't afraid to play with color and light and text and music, or to let her characters dance like no one is watching, and often. That energy, embodied in the filmmaking and in the performances, is what puts this coming-of-age film into a class all its own. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 10, 2019
Babyteeth is a funny, vibrant and deeply moving piece of work. Its flaws are the flaws of youth, overcompensating for boredom with frenetic hyperactivity. Read full review
80
EmpireChristina NewlandAug 10, 2020
Shannon Murphy’s debut film is a refreshing take on a familiar subgenre, offering a nuanced depiction of a family dealing with the worst-case scenario with humanity and sweetness. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJun 17, 2020
Davis and "Bloodline" Emmy winner Mendelsohn, both Australian screen veterans, do the less glamorous work of being sad, angry adults, though it's often their ordinary grief that grounds the movie, even as their stories lean into the clichés of certain coping mechanisms (Pills! Infidelity! Bargaining with God!). Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 9, 2019
Babyteeth is the kind of soft-hearted tearjerker that does everything in its power to rescue beauty from pain. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 18, 2020
Mendelsohn and Davis, among the finest Australian actors working today, are both awfully good at villainy, which is why their characters’ emotional restraint and fundamental decency here feels refreshing as well as true. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 17, 2020
Like many a first film from someone experienced in episodic TV, Babyteeth gives us a lot to chew on. But in this case, that turns it into the very best kind of emotional roller-coaster, one that wins its laughs and earns its tears. In a year without blockbusters, this Aussie indie marvel stands out — one of the best films of the summer. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJun 19, 2020
If there’s a complaint to be made about it, it’s only that it feels like another sign of a stylistic trend that’s inexorably cohering, as seen in other recent (and enjoyable!) work like Emerald Fennell’s "Promising Young Woman" and like "Killing Eve," a show Fennell wrote for and that Murphy has directed episodes of. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJun 25, 2020
This movie is a painful, beautiful and especially true gem. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 19, 2020
You may think you know where it is going. And maybe you're right. But how the film gets there is a very different matter. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 19, 2020
In the hands of first-time feature director Shannon Murphy — who crushed it in both of the Season Three Killing Eve episodes she helmed — and screenwriter Rita Kalnejais, who adapted her own play, Babyteeth rips past the hackneyed tropes of illness drama to dig out what’s fresh in the familiar. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLee MarshallSep 9, 2019
Babyteeth is a funny, affecting group portrait, a comedy-tinged family drama. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiJun 14, 2020
It incorporates addiction, age-inappropriate romance, mental illness, and terminal disease into its plot without collapsing into a movie-of-the-week black hole. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJun 18, 2020
As that ending approaches, the tone shifts from dark comedy to sentimental drama, adding a maudlin aftertaste to an otherwise appealingly bitter brew. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJun 18, 2020
Babyteeth is an assured and stimulating feature debut from director Shannon Murphy, who is working with a script by Rita Kalnejais. It is raw, funny and often uncomfortable. Read full review
75
The Film StageRory O'ConnorJan 20, 2020
Like the ramshackle family it so fondly depicts, Babyteeth is not without its flaws but it does suggest a confident new voice in independent cinema. Read full review
80
The GuardianDebbie ZhouNov 9, 2021
The film finds rousing energy in the tension between Milla’s journey into adulthood, and the potential dead-end of her illness. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 12, 2020
This debut feature from Australian film-maker Shannon Murphy, adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play, is well acted, heartfelt, beautifully filmed. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 9, 2019
The movie — like the performances of its small ensemble — works best when the director gets out of her own way, forgetting her aversion to clean, conventional narrative and giving the material breathing space to resonate. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 18, 2020
The movie has texture but no depth, tears but no snot. Who are these people, I kept wondering. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 19, 2020
There’s a fearlessness to Murphy’s film-making, a slightly wayward, maverick spirit. I can’t wait to see what she does next. Read full review
83
The PlaylistChristina NewlandSep 9, 2019
Given the subject matter, it’s difficult not to stray into mawkishness of some kind. But even with mistakes, the power of the main narrative is hard to erode. Read full review
68
TheWrapBen CrollSep 9, 2019
Does it all work? Not quite, but you can’t fault a film for its ambition, least of all one that does manage to bring it all together for a deeply moving home stretch. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenAug 24, 2020
It’s beautifully observed stuff – its fractured but tender family dynamics and depiction of parental pain reminded me a little of Ang Lee’s "The Ice Storm" – as it gradually lets you into a world of well-heeled suburbia that’s carefully shorn of all the usual Sydney landmarks. Read full review
91
UproxxVince ManciniJul 8, 2020
Babyteeth, from director Shannon Murphy and writer Rita Kalnejais, always keeps us half a step off balance. Their film has that a sense of casual naughtiness, a straightforward love of innocent mischief common to the best Australian movies, which in this case serves to leaven the central tragedy. Read full review
90
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJul 2, 2020
Murphy animates Rita Kalnejais’s script—itself an inventive reimagining of cliché—with insistent artistry, announcing her arrival as an ascendant talent. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 9, 2019
Babyteeth works best as an abrasive four-hander, though Murphy’s limber, sensually electric direction leaves the film with little clear evidence of its theatrical origins. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 18, 2020
The level of artistry here is out of all proportion to the smallish scale of this Australian coming-of-age drama, which was directed by Shannon Murphy from a screenplay by Rita Kalnejais. Everything seems freshly discovered. Lives connect spontaneously, explosively. Love bursts forth inappropriately, yet unquenchably. Moments come along, not just a few but many, that stop your heart, leave you grinning with delight or watching breathlessly. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 17, 2020
Written by Rita Kalnejais, based on her own 2012 play, Babyteeth works precisely because it refuses to accommodate expectation. Read full review
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