Blue Caprice
Sundance Selects | Release Date: September 13, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 18, 2013
A riveting first feature of startling maturity and intelligence. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinSep 19, 2013
Proves a highly auspicious feature debut for Moors and Porto as well as a much-deserved return to the limelight for Washington. Don't miss it. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlSep 10, 2013
The key question is whether this procedural—as in, here we watch killers proceed—contributes to any greater understanding. I believe it does. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangMar 18, 2013
Precision-honed performances and a nonsensationalistic approach distinguish this impressive first feature from French helmer Alexandre Moors, which avoids pat explanations as it offers a speculative glimpse into murderous minds. Read full review
88
New York PostKyle SmithSep 30, 2013
Blue Caprice takes a minimalist, documentary-style approach that proves harrowingly effective. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 12, 2013
Blue Caprice is a cinematic punch to the gut, a mind-bending meditation on how to mold a killer, and one of the most potent and provocative true-crime movies ever made. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineTomas HachardMar 18, 2013
The filmmakers are more interested in questioning what brings people to commit senseless and merciless acts than they are preoccupied with the historical record. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGabe ToroSep 13, 2013
Washington’s performance is one of the best of the year, a high-wire act that is careful not to dip into survivalist caricature. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 18, 2013
Moors isolates a well-known drama with the fleeting nonfiction prologue and explores it from the inside out: It's not an attempted reenactment, but it does aim to get at certain truths. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 26, 2013
Moors is neither showy nor exploitative in his telling of the story. He just lays out the details, making “Blue Caprice” not just a story of horror, but of tragedy. Read full review
80
NPRIan BuckwalterSep 13, 2013
Moors' film is at its best when it worries at notions of how evil is born, fostered and brought to bloom. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 12, 2013
The Beltway sniper case was solved a long time ago. But in some respects, Mr. Moors’s haunting film suggests, it is still a mystery. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsSep 11, 2013
It finds no clear answers, but that suits both the horrific event and this haunting, elusive film. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 26, 2013
The film’s a character piece with a tightening noose of suspense, and while it has its artsy-indie-dawdly moments, it’s disturbing in ways that aren’t easy to shake. Is the movie necessary? Do we need a “John and Lee: Portrait of Two Serial Killers”? Because it shines a light, however hesitant, into the cramped, resentful mind-sets that fester in the corners of America, I’d have to say yes. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanSep 26, 2013
Even more impressive is young Tequan Richmond (TV’s “Everybody Hates Chris”) as the quiet, intense Malvo, a kid so desperate for a father figure in his life that he becomes putty in the hands of a killer. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 26, 2013
Blue Caprice only spends a few minutes reenacting their crime — the movie shows us exactly how they did it in just a couple of scenes — because the facts of the case aren’t the movie’s focus. Instead, this lyrical, frightening film is a portrait of a man consumed by self-hatred who decided to take it out on the world. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNick SchagerSep 11, 2013
Blue Caprice otherwise proves a deft mood piece, one that probes its characters’ states of mind while remaining wholly unmoved by their grievances and hang-ups. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 9, 2013
Blue Caprice is a chilling portrait of motive, manipulation and mass murder. Read full review
75
ObserverMatthew KasselSep 3, 2013
Blue Caprice, a disturbingly intimate look at the Beltway sniper attacks of 2002, isn’t a horror film, but it certainly feels like one. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 27, 2013
As admirable as Moors’s oblique style is, though, Blue Caprice doesn’t offer the sense of catharsis or closure, let alone new information, that makes it more than a cold, if disciplined, directorial exercise. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanSep 12, 2013
Director Alexandre Moors turns the project into something of an art film, requiring patience for repetitive editing and slow-burn scenes before the movie ultimately works itself under your skin. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 10, 2013
Blue Caprice is probably what more post-9/11 cinema should have been: desperate for explanations, inchoate and wrapped in unspoken loneliness. Even though we can stomach it better a decade later, we’re still not healed. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisSep 19, 2013
Blue Caprice tells its story in fragments, a provocative strategy that sometimes works to chilling effect, sometimes not. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 15, 2013
The movie substitutes milky, washed-out color and funereal music for insight. The murders are purposely un-fluid: When you see Mohammad or Malvo take a shot, you don’t see the impact of the bullet. When you see the victim struck, you don’t see the shooter. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensSep 12, 2013
For all its tasteful spareness and eerie, diaphanous mood, Blue Caprice feels, in the end, insubstantial. It’s a true-crime story that illustrates little about the crime in question and a character study whose characters, even when haunting, remain stubbornly opaque. Read full review
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