Ain't Them Bodies Saints
IFC Films | Release Date: August 16, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 15, 2013
Visually ravishing, tonally commanding and built around magnetic performances by Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck as Bonnie-and-Clyde doomed lovers, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a tragic but not despairing tale of fatal romance set in the Texas hill country in the mid-1970s. It marks the arrival of an immense talent who will be new to most moviegoers – although Lowery is a well-known figure in the indie-film world – and it’s surely one of the best American films of the year. Read full review
100
The GuardianSebastian DoggartMar 6, 2013
The film is so singular, it's hard to place. At times, its elegiac visual quality evokes Terrence Malick, but Lowery's scripting is tighter and more accessible. His is truly a fresh voice, exhilarating to hear. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezMar 6, 2013
Lowery is the real deal and understands filmmaking, and this is abundantly clear in this searing, romantic crime drama and love story. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 15, 2013
It's a tone poem, really, less concerned with conventional action than with exploring themes of love and commitment through understated performances, sumptuous images (Bradford Young did the cinematography), lovely music (Daniel Hart composed the score) and very few words, intoned elegiacally. Read full review
90
The DissolveKeith PhippsAug 15, 2013
While virtually every shot looks like a work of art, much of the beauty of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints comes from Lowery’s refusal to choose sides. Read full review
90
Village VoiceChuck WilsonAug 13, 2013
Lowery isn't a Malick and he's certainly no Kazan, but he's his own man, and a filmmaker to watch. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 21, 2013
The balance between the slight, near-mythic narrative and the eye-wateringly beautiful cinematography (courtesy of Bradford Young), as well as the aching, spare score by Daniel Hart, create a movie that’s a more lovingly crafted tone poem than anything you’re likely to see on Texas screens this summer. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 16, 2013
Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a film that will reward you for seeking it out. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeSep 4, 2013
‘Bodies’ gets under your skin and stays there. And the gospel handclapping soundtrack feels like it’s drawing you into a dream. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleySep 2, 2013
Lowery’s understated authority lifts his tragic romance above mere Malick mimicry, while Affleck and Mara bring heart to the scrupulous artistry. All you need is a little patience... Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 22, 2013
Although at times maybe not enough happens, it’s still a satisfying homage to a golden age of American film and an original achievement in its own right. Read full review
80
NPRTomas HachardAug 16, 2013
Such an of-a-piece series of visual monuments in one year means that Ain't Them Bodies Saints has a pretty strong chance of striking some viewers as cliched or affected. Its golden-hour cinematography and persistent awe-and-wonder score sit precariously between stirring and obtrusive, inspiring and derivative. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 15, 2013
Mara is the captivating center of the film, all the emotions of the men and the child hinge on her moods. She continues to be one of those actresses able to shape-shift into different places, times and characters. Read full review
80
Time OutSam AdamsAug 13, 2013
It’s an unfailingly beautiful movie that finally stakes out a territory of its own, with quietly intense performances and a sure hand on the tiller (although the trio of bounty hunters who set out after Affleck feel like invaders from another movie, one more defined by genre than mood). Read full review
80
Film.comJordan HoffmanAug 10, 2013
The point of this film is the spell it weaves and, by and large, it is successful. It’s the music, it’s the cinematography, it’s the score, it’s Casey Affleck’s hollow speaking voice — they all add up to something that resembles a fever dream facsimile of an eventful movie. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 6, 2013
Slow as molasses but every bit as rich. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 29, 2013
With his actors and crew hewing to the script, the director’s craft is impeccable. His low-light images are suitable for framing, and there’s scarcely a moment of modernity, let alone humor or loose ends, to disrupt the tragic trajectory. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 29, 2013
Since he popped up and broke hearts in Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," Carradine has learned a wealth of practical acting knowledge about how much and how little need be done at any given moment. He provides the on-screen link to those earlier days and brings the natural authority a director craves in a performer. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 29, 2013
Lowery has a lyrical style of storytelling that is delicate and subtle yet suffused with emotion and atmosphere. It’s gentle and pointed at the same time. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints wafts over you like a dream, leaving behind a lovely, melancholy trace that hurts. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanAug 22, 2013
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a tone poem that doesn’t quite live up to its luster. It is so shrewdly perfect and solemn that the strong emotions layered throughout Bob and Ruth and Patrick’s intertwined story become lost in the film’s one-note mood. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 15, 2013
Ain't Them Bodies Saints offers no glib answers or smooth resolution, but there's no question that Lowery is a filmmaker with a striking future. Read full review
75
ObserverMatthew KasselAug 13, 2013
David Lowery’s quietly beautiful new film, his most ambitious to date, is at first glance a standard love story, set in the American West of what appears to be the early 1970s. Over time, however, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints transcends its plot, revealing itself as a cinematic meditation on the daunting power of loneliness. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 19, 2013
As Ain’t Them Bodies Saints moves along, its elliptical approach to drama goes from keeping us on our toes to dulling everything down. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 6, 2013
For all its derivative poetics -- as many exteriors as possible were shot during or just after magic hour, a la Malick -- the film is a lovely thing to experience and possesses a measure of real power. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 29, 2013
It’s disappointing that, with such talent and seriousness of intent, the movie ultimately doesn't have much new to say. To paraphrase “The Simpsons”’ Milhouse, it started out like "Bonnie and Clyde," but instead it ended in tragedy. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 16, 2013
Thematically at least, it’s like a John Ford movie with pickup trucks. But everything plays out with a sodden deliberateness, as if something mythic were going on. No such luck. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 23, 2013
It’s a secondhand vision, when all is said and done, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing when the craft is rapturous. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyAug 12, 2013
The film's highly calculated beauty suffocates rather than elevates the story's emotional underpinnings. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 10, 2013
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints feels like a fresh and poetic treatment of a prosaic story that should be utterly worn out by now. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 20, 2013
It's that sort of singular imagery that ultimately rescues Lowery's film. Yes, it's a flawed movie, but it also is a downright lovely one. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 15, 2013
Strong emotions — desperation, dread, desire — are indicated but not really communicated, and everything happens in a hazy atmosphere of humorless homage and exquisite good taste. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 15, 2013
The shadow of Terrence Malick falls hard across this Texas crime drama, a beautiful-looking prose poem that starts strong but winds up with nowhere to go. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 14, 2013
Lowery, it can’t be denied, has Malick’s moves down pat. It’s the Malick touch that eludes him. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 22, 2013
The chief asset of Ain't Them Bodies Saints is Rooney Mara, who gets more interesting with every movie. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithAug 15, 2013
In mashing together story elements from Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” with the look of Malick’s “Days of Heaven,” Lowery put 90 percent of his energy into the atmosphere and 10 percent into the script. Read full review
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