Little Joe
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: December 6, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 18, 2019
Visually, it’s a total feast for the eyes, contrasting art-deco pinks and mint greens against sterile, symmetrically framed expanses of white, vaguely evoking the aesthetic of some lost sci-fi film of the ’70s. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeFeb 26, 2020
For some, Little Joe may seem too sterile to engage emotionally, but I found it glassily unsettling – even more so on second viewing. Inhale at your peril. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellFeb 26, 2020
Read as a loose adaptation of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Little Joe is a gripping and visually striking satire of essentialist maternal instinct and the contemporary anxiety of wellbeing. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 17, 2019
An artfully unnerving, austerely hypnotic horror movie about a very sinister plant. Read full review
79
PolygonKaren HanDec 7, 2019
Any similarities to Little Shop of Horrors are superseded by similarities to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as the story becomes less about a mutated plant and about the lengths people will go to in order to achieve happiness, real or manufactured. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 3, 2019
If Little Joe’s message is never less than apparent, it avoids hitting you over the head with it. It’s a movie that grows on you, planting a seed that only comes to flower long after the closing credits. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenNov 26, 2019
Jessica Hausner confidently expresses a thorny and disturbing theme, though perhaps with too much confidence. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 6, 2019
Imagine "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" for the age of antidepressants — that’s Little Joe, the seventh feature (and first in English) from Austrian provocateur Jessica Hausner (Lourdes, Amour Fou). Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyDec 5, 2019
Little Joe manages to exert a peculiar pull in spite of being constructed with material you’ve likely seen elsewhere. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 18, 2019
This is a quietly insinuating picture with, by my estimation, one good jump scare, a lot of queasy chuckles and an overall atmosphere of slow, creeping, heavily perfumed rot. Read full review
70
TheWrapBen CrollMay 17, 2019
[A] sci-fi head trip ... If the film can be somewhat unsubtle in its thematic questions, it matches that with an equally loud color palette – and you know what, that’s perfectly fine. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 17, 2019
Boldly synthetic in its approach, in everything from colour palette to performance style, this film won’t be for everyone. And the fact that it defies easy categorisation might present a marketing challenge. But for those who engage with it, this oddly off-kilter piece of storytelling should exert a pull every bit as mesmerising as any genetically modified mood-enhancing shrub. Read full review
67
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpDec 12, 2019
Little Joe could use a trim for better deployment of plot and unnerving atmosphere. No matter. Little Joe is a quirkily rattling movie, an off-kilter tonic during the year-end onslaught of movies proclaimed “important” by their studios, and what the film lacks in structure it makes up for in its eerie, cold singularity. Read full review
67
The PlaylistCaroline TsaiMay 21, 2019
With its capable cast and sterile aesthetic in tow, “Little Joe” commands the bleak futurism of a “Black Mirror” episode, yet with slightly more muted drama. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartDec 5, 2019
The audio design of Little Joe is meant to be unsettling, but it may be for naught if audiences can hardly bear to sit through it. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 11, 2019
It’s a mood piece, and the element that ensures that it comes off is Matz Müller’s brittle, unsettling soundtrack. The characters may debate the morality of their behavior in dialogue, but it is the soundtrack that matches their actions — violent, reckless and disharmonious to the end. Read full review
60
EmpireBeth WebbFeb 18, 2020
By eschewing fast-paced suspense Hausner takes the sting out of her story, instead showcasing a bold aesthetic sense that feels like an exciting taste of what’s to come. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 28, 2019
Gardening has never been so creepy. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 18, 2019
Compared to the sophisticated and nuanced horrors of Black Mirror, Little Joe feels like a fairly straightforward riff on a very familiar idea. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 17, 2019
The film itself never exudes much heat: it’s a chilly, impeccable diagram. Read full review
58
The Film StageEd FranklMay 21, 2019
A sterile arthouse drama that rather muddles its conceit. ... Hausner and co-writer Géraldine Bajard never really get to grips with the potential for psychological terror at the center of what remains a genuinely intriguing premise. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireDec 6, 2019
It ultimately results in a cold, unsatisfying experience. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 17, 2019
None of this is represented in any compelling dramatic style, and the actors – all very talented and assured – have perhaps not had clear enough direction. It is a mood piece. Whose mood leads nowhere. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 4, 2019
Even worse, Little Joe is a horror movie that, rather astonishingly, lacks a climax. The ending falls off a cliff. The result is not to make viewers ponder the unresolved and wonder what might happen next, but to question how they’ve spent the past 105 minutes. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 17, 2019
A lifeless, tone-deaf variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. ... There’s just nothing going on here with which to engage your interest, nor is there a single moment to even slightly increase the viewer’s pulse rate. Read full review
More From This Movie

60 Critic Reviews

4.6 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 62 Plane
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL