Corsage
IFC Films | Release Date: December 23, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 2, 2023
Corsage shares some obvious DNA with Pablo Larraín’s Spencer and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, but where those films swoon for their put-upon heroines, Krieps brings an unapologetic flintiness. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 23, 2022
Making Elisabeth interestingly human proves more than enough, a feat that Kreutzer and Krieps accomplish to dazzling effect. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleDec 28, 2022
Overall, Corsage shows a tantalizing way forward for the hopelessly staid biopic genre: honoring, provoking and upending with verve and humor as it liberates a complex woman from iconography’s deadening glamour. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangMay 23, 2022
Full of odd glitches and deliberate flubs in period detail, the film feels like an invitation into a secret conspiracy to reach back through time and, with deft, irreverent 21st-century fingers, loosen the stays on Empress Elisabeth’s corsetry just a little. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 6, 2023
Not all the anachronisms work, but Corsage works anyway because Krieps makes Elisabeth a dimensional woman for all seasons. Read full review
85
TheWrapNicholas BarberMay 23, 2022
Ultimately, Corsage is a deeply sympathetic portrait of Elisabeth, enhanced by Krieps’ delightful performance. Read full review
83
Paste MagazineKathy Michelle ChaconJan 5, 2023
Brought to life through Kreutzer’s skillful direction and Krieps’ earnest performance, this surprising royal reimagining offers a fresh perspective on an elusive historical figure. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossMay 23, 2022
Corsage succeeds precisely by ditching the myth of objectivity in favor of portraying a woman eternalized by the glory and dolor of her imperfections. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJan 6, 2023
It is tempting to compare her to Princess Diana, a narcissistic media manipulator on the one hand and a sensitive woman deeper than the icon she has created on the other. But Corsage is a work of fiction, and its main character is, thankfully, far more complicated and interesting than the real thing. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 6, 2023
Having slyly slipped the bonds of the past, Corsage eventually allows its heroine to make a very modern break for it in the film’s (wholly fictional) final act. It’s a fun, coolly outrageous manoeuvre – and the final shot is so freeing, it’s as if the laces on your own invisible corset had suddenly been cut. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 5, 2023
If you’re a student of history or a Wikipedia devotee, some aspects of the film, particularly its conclusion, might bother you. But they shouldn’t. Watch a documentary if you want straight facts. Watch what Kreutzer and Krieps have come up with here for something more. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Jonathan RomneyJan 5, 2023
At moments, however, the pacing treads a fine line between stately and somnolent. What consistently mesmerises, however, is the lead performance by Krieps. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJan 2, 2023
Together, Kreutzer and Krieps explore the idea of female loneliness, a state that isn’t necessarily caused by men, but one that even so shuts them out of a woman’s world. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyDec 23, 2022
History might not have allowed Elisabeth the kind of power she wanted, her death in 1898 also bringing her life to a violent close. But Corsage reimagines it all, granting her unexpected agency and, in eventual death, one moment of pure, well-earned freedom. There’s something magnificently empowering about that. Read full review
80
Little White LiesCaitlin QuinlanDec 22, 2022
Kreutzer crafts an elegant portrait that grants this historical figure a new lease of agency and autonomy. Read full review
80
EmpireLou ThomasDec 20, 2022
A brilliant Vicky Krieps performance, ample surprises and a series of playful anachronisms elevate Marie Kreutzer’s period drama about a 19th century Empress above the ordinary. That, and a fine soundtrack to boot. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 23, 2022
Corsage . . . although a late entry to the disaffected royalty subcategory, is arguably one of the most interesting so far, much closer to the ludic, imaginative queen of the genre, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006). Read full review
80
Time OutAnna SmithMay 23, 2022
Kreutzer has her own style of revisionist feminist history, and aided by Krieps’s bold and brilliant turn, it’s riveting stuff. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2022
Kreutzer employs a variety of subtle anachronisms – servants wearing modern glasses, a concrete wall here and there – to allow herself and Krieps the freedom to introduce a modern sensibility that sticks a middle finger up at the polished production design of most films of this genre as casually as Elisabeth does at the decorum of her courtly life. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 23, 2022
In many ways this is a study in anger, and it is an austere and angular picture. Krieps gives an exhilaratingly fierce, uningratiating performance. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 23, 2022
Krieps is terrific in a role which depicts Elisabeth as both a victim of her gilded cage circumstances and a chain-smoking self-absorbed uber-bitch. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJan 12, 2023
It’s a sly little film, playing with our expectations, keeping us guessing — and wondering if Krieps’ name might be as familiar as Streep’s, one day. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowJan 2, 2023
The sumptuous settings, elegiac tone, and Krieps' layered performance bring us into the world of this woman caught between the expectations of her culture and her own desires. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckDec 21, 2022
The destination may be startling but, thanks to a magnetic star turn from Krieps, the voyage is never boring. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 19, 2022
Overall, Corsage doesn’t reinvent the royal-as-trapped-canary subgenre (it also glorifies Elisabeth’s ultimate fate in a slightly uncomfortable way), but the film style and attitude, much like Krieps’ empress, make a scene. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSep 12, 2022
Writer-director Marie Kreutzer’s boldly restive biopic imagines Empress Elisabeth of Austria as a deeply restless soul chafing against the social limitations of her day. Read full review
75
IndieWireAdam SolomonsMay 23, 2022
Although Corsage makes a worthy attempt to recast Elisabeth as independent of her constraints, its final note leaves it feeling a little too much like its own sort of requiem. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJan 2, 2023
Corsage is not a great movie, but it’s good at detailing one woman’s circumstances. It doesn’t browbeat us with meaning, which it had every right to do, but instead attempts something humbler. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 2, 2023
What Kreutzer aims to impress upon us is the effect of smothering and constraint—not only upon her heroine but also upon the female sex, at every social stratum, under Habsburg rule. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJan 4, 2023
Corsage has many things going for it, most of them being the virtuoso performance from Vicky Krieps. She imbues Elisabeth with a restlessness that comes off her in waves, and as her fury percolates, so too does her shrewdness. And so would the dramatic tension, but Kreutzer wields metaphors so bluntly that any emotional poignancy quickly evaporates. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 5, 2023
Despite the film’s tendency to drag, Vicky Krieps remains compulsively watchable, as always. She almost saves the movie. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 3, 2023
Still, for all its attractively appointed torpor, Corsage offers a provocative retort to the fetishistic depictions of Elisabeth that have become commodified in Austria over the past 125 years. It tears open the candy box to reveal something poisonous at its center. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 30, 2022
It is Krieps’ performance that carries Corsage, a woman in all her many moods, shadings, fears and desires, treated as abnormal and gossiped about and controlled by insults from pretty much every male in her life. And more than a little annoyed about it. Read full review
More From This Movie

76 Critic Reviews

6.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 78 John Wick: Chapter 4
2 73 Creed III
3 67 Avatar: The Way of Water
4 63 Knock at the Cabin
5 61 Scream VI
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL