God's Own Country
Picturehouse Entertainment | Release Date: October 25, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisNov 8, 2017
A stirring romance between an emotionally stifled sheep farmer and an irrepressible Romanian migrant worker, isn’t shy about paying homage to the classic “Brokeback Mountain,” but in many ways, this British film turns out better. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 31, 2017
In his debut feature, Lee has crafted a mature love story centered on an immature man facing the fear of even admitting that he needs love at all. It’s a film to prize. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 26, 2017
In the push-pull between Secareanu’s resonant stillness and O’Connor’s barely sublimated intensity, you feel the struggle of two souls forging a path toward each other, gradually realizing that while life may be harsh and unforgiving, love doesn’t have to be. Read full review
91
The Film StageEd FranklFeb 14, 2017
The chemistry between these two men is inescapable, their relationship growing almost imperceptibly, composed expertly in a nuanced script by Lee and unfussily filmed by director of photography Joshua James Richards (Songs My Brothers Taught Me). Read full review
91
IndieWireJude DryFeb 8, 2017
There will be many people who see themselves in the furtive glances and mud-covered kisses from which God’s Own Country weaves its harsh but hopeful narrative, and they will do so while witnessing a finely crafted piece of cinema. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 24, 2017
God’s Own Country weaves a rough magic from Joshua James Richards’s biting cinematography and the story’s slow, unsteady arc from bitter to hopeful. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 28, 2017
Graced by its refreshingly frank treatment of gay sexuality, its casually expressive use of nudity, and its eloquent depiction of animal husbandry as a contrasting metaphor for the absence of human tenderness, this is a rigorously naturalistic drama that yields stirring performances from the collision between taciturn demeanors and roiling emotional undercurrents. Read full review
90
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 28, 2017
Lee’s love for this hard land and the boy trapped in it – so fully embodied by young British actor Josh O’Connor – is unexpectedly moving and rich. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeIsaac Feldberg Nov 15, 2017
As the story arcs toward its touching denouement, it’s those quiet moments — imbued with the windswept soul of the landscape — that harbor the most lyrical beauty. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneOct 24, 2017
Writer-director Francis Lee captures not only what masculinity does and how it comes undone, but the complex apparatus that keeps it into place: the family’s surveillance, the silence, the shame. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleFeb 16, 2017
An empathetic depiction of two marginalised ways of life; God's Own Country is a deeply felt romance that harnesses the primal relationship between people and place. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 28, 2017
This debut feature from Yorkshire-born actor and first-time director Francis Lee is tough, sensual, unsentimental, with excellent lead performances from Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeJan 28, 2017
Skipping some of the more predictable narrative obstacles we’ve come to expect from the coming-out drama, this sexy, thoughtful, hopeful film instead advances a pro-immigration subtext that couldn’t be more timely amid the closing borders of Brexit-era Britain. Read full review
80
EmpireTerri White
A dig into the nature of humanity from a director already fluent in the language of brutality and tenderness. A stunning love story that in its finest moments is pure poetry. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie Collin
The film has a cumulative power that sneaks up on you even as you think you’re keeping track of it, and a twilit afterglow that hasn’t faded yet. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave Calhoun
Writer-director Francis Lee has drawn on his own farming background and his film is full of convincing detail. The lack of chat feels especially truthful. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerDec 29, 2017
What writer/director Lee (himself from hill farming stock) catches is that their passion is welded in pragmatism. Homophobia, xenophobia, bigotry, and callousness all float beneath the surface here, but as quiet subtext. This is the silence of the hills, where three words are volumes. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 3, 2018
Actor turned writer-director Francis Lee revels in the grimy greys of Yorkshire in early spring, treeless hills covered with stone ruins and stone walls that need repair. The accents are thick, the mud is thicker and the romance could not be less romantic. At first. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Gayle MacDonaldNov 3, 2017
God's Own Country is writer-director Francis Lee's debut and comparisons to Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" are inevitable. But where Brokeback was sweeping Wyoming vistas and homophobic backlash, this enigmatic little film says it all in razor-sharp closeups and minimal words. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyOct 26, 2017
A tricky movie, but not in a way that’s dishonest. Its first feet are in the school of miserablist realism, and while director Lee never abandons his things-as-they-are approach, he tells a love story by letting magic in at unusual angles. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 28, 2017
While you know where “God’s Own” is going most of the way Lee finds a way to breathe new life into it (to a point). Read full review
45
TheWrapDan CallahanJan 28, 2017
Instead of making us feel that these boys are meant to be together, God’s Own Country unintentionally suggests that Gheorghe should get himself to a city where his silky dark hair, bedroom eyes and developed aesthetic sense might be far better appreciated by others. Read full review
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