Border
Neon | Release Date: October 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 13, 2019
This unusual film sits in a genre of one. Read full review
100
UproxxVince ManciniOct 1, 2018
It’s not quite horror, crime, or comedy — it really just is “fantastic,” in every sense of the word. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 23, 2018
Although Abbasi and his co-writers fall into a slight genre trap toward the end – one familiar to any fan of traditional crime thrillers – Border is otherwise a work of spectacular, unclassifiable artistry. Don’t read another word about it: just go. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonDec 3, 2018
Border is more resonant than you’d expect, and one of the oddest movies of the year. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeOct 24, 2018
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes Border. A thematically rich and deeply strange blend of romantic drama, magical-realist fantasy, and crime thriller, Sweden’s official entry to this year’s Academy Awards splits the difference between the highbrow cringe comedy of "Toni Erdmann" and the lowbrow cop fantasy "Bright." Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyJun 4, 2018
Unique, unforgettable and cathartic, Border is an oddball, but poignant cult classic in the making. Abbasi’s sincerity wisely avoids caricature and mocking his marginalized characters and in doing so he crafts a surprisingly humanist and artful story of love for the diminished and dismissed outsiders of the world. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 17, 2018
Border is only really at its best when focusing on Tina’s rediscovery of her true nature. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMay 17, 2018
Abbasi grounds the narrative in an emotional foundation even as it flies off the rails. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 9, 2019
While the film defies neat genre classification, it has elements of physical horror – like a mating between the mind of David Cronenberg and something that crawled out of a compost heap. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentMar 4, 2019
Telling an age-old story in a singularly original way, Border is a compelling, sometimes excruciating fairy tale for our times — with a bizarre sex scene to rival Team America’s. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 25, 2018
Selected by Sweden as its entry for the foreign language Oscar, the refreshingly offbeat, sturdily handled Border is not just unlikely to resemble any of its subtitled competition but also anything else you’ll see this year. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyOct 25, 2018
This is a movie that aims to startle in overt and subtextual ways; the less known before viewing, the better. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 17, 2018
Border is a piece of modern gothic, a far out midnight movie which delivers on the WTF-ery while maintaining a surprisingly big and generous heart. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 17, 2018
One of the things that truly impresses about Border is the way Abbasi successfully juggles so many disparate plot elements and then brings them together like a well tuned orchestra. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 2, 2019
Is it horror? Drama? Love story? Allegory? Maybe best to think of it as a chilly Scandinavian bedtime tale, the type to unsettle bothersome children and leave them identifying with the ogre. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownOct 25, 2018
The film’s slow reveal of its fantastical elements, which evoke the erratic, dreamlike strangeness of folk tales, makes them all the more unsettling. Read full review
75
TheWrapSteve PondMay 17, 2018
Border is dark and unsettling and proudly deranged. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelDec 5, 2018
Border brings to horror-fantasy the same Swedish sensibility that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” brought to crime thrillers. Welcome to the land of eternal night. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyBilge EbiriOct 25, 2018
While the film does take some twists and turns — some fairly contrived — it mostly drills down and explores her emotional conundrum without drawing symbolic conclusions about the world we live in. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 25, 2018
Border may not be everyone’s idea of a fun night out, but it takes you to places you won’t forget, and that’s nothing to sniff at. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMay 17, 2018
As a timely yarn about the mistreatment of minorities, both in Sweden and worldwide, Border is rich in allegorical layers. But as a thriller at least partially rooted in supernatural genre conventions, its relentlessly dour Nordic glumness drags a little. Social realism and magical realism make uneasy bedfellows. Read full review
70
VarietyAlissa SimonMay 17, 2018
An exciting, intelligent mix of romance, Nordic noir, social realism, and supernatural horror that defies and subverts genre conventions. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 24, 2018
Border is a Venn diagram of a film: sometimes darkly comedic, sometimes wild honey sweet, sometimes a stomach-churning crime drama, with aspects of both Scandinavian mythology and contemporary queer cinema. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 9, 2019
Despite a wobbly handle on all this, it’s an intriguing film to wrestle with, it’s powerfully acted by Melander and Milonoff, and it sticks out for its undeniable outlandishness. After all, when was the last time a bearded troll baby posted from Finland was the closest thing to salvation? Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsOct 26, 2018
Even the most open-minded viewers may have difficulty relating to the two lead protagonists in Border, a cynical Swedish romantic-fantasy that follows estranged border patrolwoman Tina (Eva Melander) and her unconvincing attraction to Byronic stranger Vore (Eero Milonoff). Read full review
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