Cow
IFC Films | Release Date: April 8, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 4, 2022
It doesn’t make cows into human beings. If anything, for some 90 minutes, it turns us into a cow. In doing so, it shows us — in a way that we actually feel it — how amazing it is to exist. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMark KeizerApr 6, 2022
Its observational shooting style is simple yet rich in quotidian detail. Its storytelling is morally neutral, yet charged with moments that obligate the viewer to question our treatment of farm animals. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJul 12, 2021
The small miracle of director Andrea Arnold’s experiential documentary is that it enacts its simple premise in straightforward terms, but assembles them into a profound big picture. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshApr 7, 2022
What Arnold manages to make tangibly cinematic in Cow is the soulful spirituality of these animals, their beauty and their emotions. It is as moving as it is devastating, and although this film requires patience and fortitude, it rewards with a singular and perspective-shifting cinematic experience. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyApr 8, 2022
By the end of Arnold’s lyrical passion project, one feels genuinely connected to Luma and her likes, deeply concerned about their wellbeing amid the grueling circumstances they are obligated to dwell in. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 28, 2022
[A] wordless, moving and sometimes unsettling documentary. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyApr 7, 2022
Cow never makes any case for veganism or any other cause. Rather, the film is a product of the increasing scrutiny of our destructive hierarchical categories, including the unnecessary cruelty of factory farming, the growth in the legal studies of animal rights, and scientific interest in animal consciousness. Read full review
83
The PlaylistElena LazicJul 12, 2021
No matter which way one looks at it — whether at cow-level or not — the lives of these animals are not happy ones. Therefore, the ethical question that remains isn’t about whether these animals are being treated well or not, but simply about what we are willing to live with. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 16, 2022
It’s not an easy watch, certainly – I cried more or less solidly through the last 30 minutes – but it’s an important one. Read full review
80
EmpireBeth WebbJan 14, 2022
An immersive and impassioned documentary from one of Britain’s most formidable filmmakers, which may be singular in its perspective but is as powerful to watch as it is painful. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 14, 2022
There are implicit arguments here about the monetisation of motherhood and about the human capacity to shut out unattractive truths. Read full review
80
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiJan 14, 2022
Its observational mode keeps it from being didactic or manipulative in any way, and it adopts an intimacy that evokes the deepest empathy. Luma’s pain is never spectacle. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 14, 2022
For all the placidity of its cud-chewing subject, Cow has a thrillingly alien charge. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 14, 2022
Arnold’s Cow is grimy and unvarnished where it counts, laced with poeticism whenever the banal cruelty threatens to leave its audience numb. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellJan 14, 2022
A near-wordless study of dairy cow Luma’s life and shot from a bovine-eye view, Cow resists the urge to anthropomorphise Luma while eliciting deep empathy for this non-human animal. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeJul 13, 2021
A filmmaker infectiously attuned to movement, Arnold finds a horrible, hypnotic rhythm in these gruelingly looped procedures, though she doesn’t shoot them with any surplus beauty. Read full review
80
TheWrapJason SolomonsJul 12, 2021
The main problem, on the surface, is why would you watch it? It’s certainly not a crowd pleaser, but there is remarkable film craft on display, plenty of moments of wonder and beauty, some heart-melting tenderness and a finale to match “The Irishman.” Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonJul 12, 2021
There remains something unknowable about Luma, but while that proves a limitation, Cow also turns it into a strength. We wonder what’s she thinking, and then we put ourselves in her place — and realise it’s not a great place to be. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 12, 2021
There is something very heartfelt and committed about Andrea Arnold’s film: a poignancy and intimacy. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerJul 12, 2021
Arnold plunges us straight into her subject’s point-of-view and never leaves it until the bitter end, during a final scene that’s shocking in its bluntness. Read full review
80
Time OutDave CalhounJul 9, 2021
There’s nothing cloying or corny about the way Arnold depicts these beasts. What she gives us is a straightforward slice of a cow’s relentless life of muck, milk, breeding and feeding. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 17, 2022
The movie wants us to see how the butter is made, nothing more and nothing less. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganApr 7, 2022
A feat of passive yet passionate cinema, Arnold’s latest fits perfectly among her existing filmography, portraying the depraved livelihood of those exploited for the financial gain of others. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckApr 6, 2022
In Arnold’s careful, unhurried hands, it is a sobering lesson, though one without a clear agenda. Arnold simply seems interested in telling us Luma’s story. And that is enough. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneApr 4, 2022
Throughout Andrea Arnold’s film, a kind of affective connection is formed between animal and the cinematic apparatus. Read full review
75
The Film StageEd FranklJul 19, 2021
Yet despite a lo-fi, handheld-camera cragginess, it still has something of the lyricism that marks so much of her work, going back to the Oscar-winning short Wasp. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaApr 7, 2022
We somehow feel connected to these animals — not by their precious, humanlike relatability — but by the cyclically banal and thorough means with which they are exploited, milked and bred on aggressive schedules that break their bodies down prematurely. Read full review
67
ColliderRoss BonaimeApr 8, 2022
Not all of Arnold’s usual tricks work effectively in Cow, but for a first documentary, Cow is an engrossing and surprisingly emotional look at the farming industry through the eyes of a single bovine. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyApr 11, 2022
Arnold, a major artist of cinematic fiction, has made characters’ self-presentation, their sense of performance in daily life, a crucial part of her most original drama, “American Honey.” In “Cow,” Arnold hasn’t considered her subjects or her place in their world as stringently or as originally. Read full review
More From This Movie

80 Critic Reviews

6.7 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 86 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2 84 Are You There God? It's Me,...
3 78 John Wick: Chapter 4
4 75 Polite Society
5 73 Air
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL