Afternoons of Solitude
Grasshopper Film | Release Date: June 27, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsSep 1, 2025
The film offers no explicit commentary or context, but instead allows the images to speak for themselves. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 27, 2025
Serra’s meticulous shooting and cutting relate to phenomenology; that is, it delivers an account of subjective experience. It implies that Rey’s “personality” is superfluous to his being. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 21, 2025
In its graceful intertwining of meditation and obscenity, Afternoons of Solitude gives an ancient, controversial tradition the chance to shock and awe without hype or favor. It’s inhumane, it’s human and it’s a hell of a film. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 27, 2025
The film’s unflinchingly repetitive shape allows viewers to lose sight of their perspective at the same time as it invites them to draw their own conclusions, a vertigo which proves to be more involving than the didacticism that a traditional documentary might bring to the same topic. Read full review
83
The Film StageDavid KatzOct 2, 2024
In the interest of reservation: this isn’t Serra’s most intellectually interesting film, making it less fulfilling than his others, though it achieves the most directness of intention and rhetorical clarity of his work so far, continuing from Pacifiction in displaying how naturally his method and interests fit depicting the modern world Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyJun 5, 2026
Stripped of the bells, the whistles and the cheering crowds, what remains is impossible to romanticise: an exhausted, tortured animal, a man performing hypermasculinity to the point of self-annihilation, and inexcusable barbarism. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhil HoadSep 1, 2025
Deeply caught up in decoding this tradition, perhaps Serra is too beholden to it. If only this admittedly riveting examination of dark human compulsions had found a way to also articulate the perspectives of the animals for whom the arena is a lethal experience. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJun 24, 2025
Though “Afternoons of Solitude” shows only the present tense of bullfighting, it looks deep into history and spotlights the tragic contradictions of modern life itself. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 3, 2024
Any thoughts about the violence we’re seeing are strictly our own, never fed to us by the filmmaker. That makes Afternoons of Solitude, in its uncompromising way, a doc as muscular and ferocious as the poor creatures being ritualistically slaughtered in those bullrings. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeOct 3, 2024
The film’s gaze is arguably as mocking as it is dazzled — with the macho posturing and hero-worship of Roca Rey a tacit source of comedy — while Serra, living up to his reputation for challenging arthouse fare, doesn’t flinch in his presentation of animal abuse and suffering. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 25, 2024
Its immersive intensity makes it essential viewing for Serra followers, and for anyone interested in documentary’s ability to record, and make us think about, the extremes of the real world. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 26, 2025
If you’ve ever been curious, without wanting to endure a drawn-out day-long slaughter by the world’s best-dressed and best-compensated butchers, “Afternoons of Solitude” will put you in that ring with a celebrated torero. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassJun 23, 2025
In the absence of any overt commentary, the film’s more open-ended choices in editing and music take on added significance. Read full review
More From This Movie

85 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 76 Hokum
3 74 Disclosure Day
4 73 Toy Story 5
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL