Sweet Country

Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: April 6, 2018

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

87	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 21 Critics

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Washington PostAlan ZilbermanApr 17, 2018

This shrewdly observed story asks another question: Is civilization possible in a nation where discrimination has such deep roots? In Sweet Country, the answer arrives with a tough fatalism. Read full review

100

VarietyGuy LodgeApr 2, 2018

The spare, classical chase drama that ensues is seeded with barbed observations on colonialism, cultural erasure and rough justice, kept poetically succinct by Thornton’s lithe, soaring visual storytelling. Read full review

100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorApr 2, 2018

The story is both fresh and archetypal; the landscape both hard and delicate – and beautifully observed. Memories and premonitions are intriguingly inserted into the action and the performances...are note perfect. Read full review

100

The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 2, 2018

This is fiercely powerful storytelling, simple and muscular in one way, but also conveying nuance and sophistication in its depiction of character. Read full review

100

The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 29, 2018

Sweet Country is tough, spare and lyrical right down to the bone.... It is also a work of moral conscience that rules out easy answers, with acridly funny moments of black comedy and a sense of awesome natural spectacle that is inseparable from its dramatic impact. It has a power that makes the cinema shake. Read full review

The PlaylistJessica KiangApr 2, 2018

Sweet Country is unmistakably a western in iconography and spare, taciturn tone, but it is also an incendiary slave narrative, in which the poetry of the filmmaking can barely contain a simmering fury and disgust at this most shameful of human institutions. Read full review

Village VoiceApril WolfeApr 5, 2018

Thornton delicately peels back all the layers of Aussie injustice in this film, but what’s most unnerving is that the story proves to be so universal. Read full review

The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 5, 2018

The director Warwick Thornton constructs a searing indictment of frontier racism as remarkable for its sonic restraint as its visual expansiveness. Read full review

Screen InternationalLee MarshallApr 2, 2018

One of the many pleasures of this understated drama is its slow-burn magnetism and lack of flashy genre posturing. Read full review

IndieWireEric KohnApr 5, 2018

While Sweet Country snakes along to an inevitable outcome, Thornton retains a sharp control over the movie’s ravishing visuals, assembling them with a rhythmic quality that transcends any specific time and place. Read full review

The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 2, 2018

Poetically directed by Warwick Thornton, whose Samson & Delilah also threw a spotlight over aboriginal characters, Sweet Country has a shaggy, digressive eccentricity common to Ozploitation cinema, not to mention a humane understanding of its characters. Read full review

The Film StageChristopher Schobert

Thornton establishes himself as a director to watch, and with fine performances from Neill, Brown, Gorey-Furber, and, especially, Hamilton Morris, also reveals an ability to make an epic tale feel deeply personal. Read full review

Time OutNick DentApr 9, 2018

A chase movie becomes an outdoor courtroom drama, and Thornton wrings from this fable of rough frontier justice a statement from the heart. Australia now has its "High Noon." Read full review

Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 5, 2018

While many familiar tropes are present, including murder, mayhem, a tough lawman and a tentative posse, Thornton uses them to tell a 20th century outback story and offer sharp, pointed commentary on relations between whites and indigenous peoples. Read full review

The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyApr 2, 2018

In terms of its visual command, the movie could hardly be more expressive. Read full review

CineVueJohn BleasdaleApr 2, 2018

Sweet Country is a hoarsely angry film, a powerful denunciation of the racism and violence on which modern Australia was eventually founded. Read full review

Total FilmJordan FarleyMar 29, 2018

The beauty of Alice Springs offers a profound contrast with the ugly acts committed by its inhumane colonists. Read full review

EmpireIan FreerMar 12, 2018

Sweet Country is epic and personal, daring to tell a simple story in a challenging, arresting way. It’s a demanding two hours but leavened by great performances, especially from newcomer Hamilton Morris. Read full review

Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 11, 2018

Despite its reliance on some overworked symbolism, the screenplay by David Tranter and Steven McGregor is smart. However, the intercut flash-forwards and flashbacks do little to aid our understanding or appreciation of the story, and seem like artistic frippery. Read full review

RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 6, 2018

This is a movie of visuals first and foremost; it’s no fluke that director Warwick Thornton shared cinematography duties with Dylan River. In addition to capturing stunning images, Thornton has a sleight-of-hand maestro’s joy in shuffling and fanning them. Lightning-fast cuts to flashbacks and flash-forwards keep the viewer on his or her toes in a bracing fashion. Read full review

Slant MagazineDerek SmithApr 2, 2018

The film is a meticulous examination of how the dehumanization of Australia's native population bred an environment of cyclical violence and mistrust. Read full review