Wildlife
IFC Films | Release Date: October 19, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Associated PressLindsey BahrOct 18, 2018
Wildlife isn’t just a great first film, it’s a great film. Read full review
100
The New York TimesGlenn KennyOct 18, 2018
Wildlife is a domestic drama both sad and terrifying. The entire cast does exceptional work (Oxenbould is an exciting find), but the movie is anchored by Mulligan, who gives the best performance of any I’ve seen in film this year. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
[Dano] gives his actors space so that the rhythms are their own, and they hold us through the tough final scenes and bittersweet ending. This is a superb film. Read full review
91
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonOct 20, 2018
The film is filled with sensitive performances that help to upend the fantasy of the nuclear family as the cure for society’s ills. It’s a sparse but stunning mood piece, and a wonderful showcase for Dano as a uniquely family-driven auteur. Read full review
91
Film ThreatMatthew PassantinoOct 17, 2018
We’ve seen stories like Wildlife done many times before but rarely are they done with such grace and humanity. Read full review
91
The Film StageJordan Raup
In capturing the crumbling of a family and the scars left behind, Paul Dano has made a fascinatingly complex portrait of the fracturing of American ideals. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
Dano crafts an unsparing portrait that’s harsh and humane in equal measure. Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyAlan ScherstuhlOct 18, 2018
Dano’s film is shrewd and exacting, composed with rigor yet alert to the rhythms of its performers. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 18, 2018
Mulligan's performance is too specific and too wrenching to be reduced to a mere generational statement. This is her most fully formed role since her performance in another early '60s piece, the British coming-of-age drama "An Education," and in some ways it feels like a rejoinder, perhaps even a corrective. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 6, 2018
This is Mulligan’s show. Her risky, raw performance is the life force of an otherwise muted film. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 31, 2018
Diego Garcia’s cinematography plays a key role, showing us lavender sunsets, endless plains and fire spreading down a hill like melting butter. Amid this beauty, Dano’s direction is restrained, letting us focus on the pain in Mulligan’s darting eyes. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 10, 2018
This is an accomplished, moving piece of filmmaking, one that cares about its characters and trusts its performers. It comes from a relatively old school of dramatic storytelling but it connects emotionally because of Dano’s tender but confident work and what he’s able to draw from two of the best performers of their generation. Read full review
85
Film Journal InternationalDoris ToumarkineOct 25, 2018
Wildlife offers a fresh glimpse of lower-class anomie and the rhythms of life in a simpler time and place. Read full review
85
TheWrapRobert AbeleOct 17, 2018
In the hands of its filmmakers and cast is a rivetingly good, human journey, full of sparks, flame, smoke, containment, ash, and the terrible beauty that sometimes mystifyingly colors stories of desolation. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 17, 2018
Wildlife is confident and patient and mature. It may be a small film, but its power is massive. Especially its very last shot, which is so devastating it has the force of a sucker punch. Read full review
80
CineVueKatie DriscollNov 28, 2018
Paul Dano’s directorial debut Wildlife lands not with a thud but a slow caress, to be inhaled and ruminated on, its stagnant images billowing into your lungs, giving kudos to the fact that his switch from acting (There Will Be Blood, Prisoners) to directing has been made with a precision and ease. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenNov 5, 2018
A beautifully observed study of an American family coming apart at the seams, it not only establishes Dano as a director to watch, but features an extraordinary performance by Mulligan. Read full review
80
Time OutAlex GodfreyOct 18, 2018
It’s uncomfortable in all the right ways. Read full review
80
SlateInkoo KangOct 18, 2018
Wildlife is a confident and compassionate first film. But with its protagonist mostly relegated to waiting and observing, its main raison d’être is Mulligan’s masterful turn as a thirtysomething woman coldly testing her abilities to see what she’s capable of, while terrified that she won’t be able to provide a good life for her son. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 17, 2018
In a beautifully nuanced directing debut, actor Paul Dano mines the smallest details in Richard Ford’s acclaimed 1990 novel — he and his partner Zoe Kazan wrote the emotionally-attuned script — to create a portrait of a woman who can’t quite catch up with the frustration and feminist stirrings she feels inside. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 17, 2018
It’s Dano’s handling of the actors, unsurprisingly, which shows the most confidence. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 15, 2018
I prefer Wildlife when it gets messier, as Mulligan casts aside her natural sweetness to bring us a soured soul, driven only by the courage of her confusion. So rank is the unhappiness that you can almost smell the bitter smoke of the fires, drifting from far away. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 12, 2018
It’s an extremely watchable movie, beautifully and even luxuriously appointed in its austere evocation of smalltown America – though maybe a little self-conscious in its emotional woundedness. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthy
The script dares to go deep and confront what is going on in the hearts and minds of all three family members, but it does so articulately and without hysteria. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim Grierson
As a director, Dano prefers static camera setups and uncluttered frames, emphasising the mundane nature of the drama, which only allows the increasing darkness of this tale to become more upsetting. Read full review
80
VarietyOwen Gleiberman
Dano, it’s immediately clear, is a natural-born filmmaker, with an eye for elegant spare compositions that refrain from being too showy; they rarely get in the way of the story he’s telling. The tale itself is resonant and absorbing, though in a highly deliberate way. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteOct 31, 2018
Paul Dano’s directorial debut is a visually stunning living portrait of a midcentury marriage falling apart at a time when that was sort of unthinkable, or so we think. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 24, 2018
Wildlife isn’t dazzling entertainment but an intelligent, low-key and satisfying film with a rare respect for every character. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineGreg CwikSep 7, 2018
Wildlife is at once loquacious and laconic, a film in which simple words hold unspoken and unequivocal power, and the space between banal utterances become chasms. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd
It’s a very accomplished debut, with strong performances (Mulligan, especially, is magnificent, lowering her voice to a smoky purr and letting desperation nip at the edges of her confidence) and an elegantly straightforward style that’s miles removed from the flashiness of most American indie debuts. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 18, 2018
An affecting coming-of-age drama based on a superb book and directed by an exceptional actor in his directorial debut. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJordan Ruimy
The film is easy to admire, but lacks the kinds of scenes necessary to truly make a emotional connection. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonNov 6, 2018
It's a bold and borderline eccentric performance by Mulligan. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 1, 2018
Carey Mulligan is terrific, even when the script calls for Jeanette to make a quick, not entirely plausible transition from a repressed housewife from the Eisenhower era into a diva from an overwrought B-movie. It’s a great performance in an almost-good movie. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 24, 2018
Mulligan’s eccentric energy is her greatest strength, but it makes for a slightly wobbly — if just this side of wonderful — film. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonNov 1, 2018
Dano shows technical promise as a director, but I hope his taste in material has a bit more range. Now that he’s gotten a rather passionless passion project out of his system, hopefully he’ll lift his gaze up in search of other, more vibrant lives—out there in the vastness, hungry for perfect lighting. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaOct 25, 2018
Come see Wildlife for Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, but stay for the young actor who plays their 14-year-old son. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 12, 2018
It might be that the actor Dano baulks at taking the scissors to any of the performances of his fellow thespians, or that screenwriters Dano and Zoe Kazan are too faithful to Richard Ford’s source novel but this results in a deadening of effect that renders the melancholy monotonous. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan Hoffman
It is a quiet, subtle story and, as is so often the case when an actor takes their first trip behind the camera, a showcase for terrific performances. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubLawrence GarciaOct 17, 2018
From moment to moment, the direction is unimpeachably competent, but its surface elegance masks a core hollowness. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiOct 18, 2018
Gyllenhaal and Mulligan are in fine form here, but too much of the screenplay, written by Dano and Zoe Kazan, doesn’t ring true. Read full review
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