Alpha
Neon | Release Date: March 27, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistElena LazicMay 20, 2025
Through its complex structure, formed of different timelines and split realities, uncanny dreams and blurred memories, “Alpha” viscerally teases out the binds of love and trauma. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMar 26, 2026
Softer and gentler than either of its forbears, "Alpha" hums with a dreamlike unease, a movie less concerned with sensation than with genuine feeling. Read full review
90
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 24, 2026
A nervy, eye-popping reimagining of the AIDS crisis as filtered through the lens of a frenzied domestic drama, Julia Ducournau’s new film is, like the very best Cave song, a profoundly upsetting creation to sink into, equal parts blood-pumping passion and skin-crawling menace. Read full review
90
ColliderTherese LacsonMay 19, 2025
Ducournau's story is brilliant, but without the leading actors of the film, the movie wouldn't have been nearly as impressive. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeNov 13, 2025
Mind you, everyone here is suffering. That overbearing mass of existential angst almost certainly contributes to the many negative responses, but few will endure its attack without admitting they’ve sat through something out of the ordinary. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongNov 13, 2025
Alpha is as thorny as her previous two features, but there’s something lonely and longing here too. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineRachel BarkerMay 22, 2025
The obsession of Alpha’s mother with her daughter’s health is never played for shock, but presented with conflict both internal and external, a trial encountered as a result of genuine love. Read full review
80
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannMay 20, 2025
Some may find this despairing and baffling, but Ducournau finds a strange layer of hope and love beneath all the dust and grime. Read full review
80
TheWrapChase HutchinsonMay 19, 2025
As Alpha’s family becomes increasingly isolated, the film’s ambition widens. Though the rhythms of this can take some getting used to, the resulting emotional payoff is more than worth your patience. Read full review
78
PolygonJesse HassengerMar 31, 2026
Alpha is more of a horror-inflected drama than an outright genre piece, which allowed plenty of critics to fixate, not unfairly, on its failings as an AIDS metaphor. Yet the movie has resonance beyond simply recalling the years of its creator’s youth. Read full review
70
The RevealKeith PhippsMar 27, 2026
All the aspects of Alpha that work makes the film’s final stretch, which brings together the two timelines in a way that makes a lot more sense symbolically than logistically, that much more unfortunate, but no less of a worthwhile effort from a director who understands that shock and horror can sometimes clear space for understanding and empathy. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLee MarshallMay 19, 2025
There’s a nicely intimate side to Ducornau’s urge to dig beneath the flesh here, a ‘soft body horror’ simulacrum of the hormonal changes this adolescent girl is going through. Read full review
60
EmpireSophie ButcherNov 13, 2025
It doesn’t hit the heights of Raw and Titane, but strong performances and the moving familial drama mean Julia Ducournau’s third feature is still an impactful watch. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesTim GriersonMar 27, 2026
While her previous pictures never shied away from tenderness despite their outré scenarios, her latest is a far more melancholy affair. Sadly, it’s also easily her least accomplished. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDavid RobbOct 9, 2025
The possibility of relating to the characters is constantly hindered by the struggle to make sense of the story’s messily sketched dystopia. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMay 21, 2025
Alpha is more evidence of Ducournau’s genius for evocative imagery and striking compositions, but it also suggests she’d benefit from boundaries to push against. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 19, 2025
It can impress with its utter originality and technical know-how, but there’s so much going on for so long that many viewers will be exhausted by the midway point, if not earlier. Read full review
42
The Film StageLuke HicksMay 22, 2025
One film too late for a sophomore slump, Alpha feeds on its own potential, turning a possibly brilliant collection of ideas into one so muddy it’s hard to say exactly what any of them connote. But the feeling of having to trudge through is there all the same, and over two hours is a long trudge. Read full review
40
The IndependentGeoffrey MacnabMay 22, 2025
Alpha has some tremendous moments, but the movie is undermined by its own dense and impenetrable storytelling style. It would surely have worked far better as an immersive installation piece than as a two hour feature. Read full review
40
BBCNicholas BarberMay 20, 2025
A disorientating, maddening whirlwind of haunting sights, thunderous music and fiercely intense performances, Alpha confirms that Ducournau is a visionary artist. But once you've recovered from the brain-bashing experience of watching her latest film, it comes to seem a lot less satisfying and stimulating than Titane was. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 19, 2025
It’s painful to watch such talents pour so much into roles that are fairly common, if not clichéd by American indie standards. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comKatie RifeMar 27, 2026
At times, “Alpha” plays like a Cronenbergian after-school special, in which the visual metaphors are overplayed, and the drama is broadly sketched to teach a moral lesson. Read full review
33
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 19, 2025
The maddening frustration of her first unambiguous misfire — which is worse than bad because it could have been good — is that it feels so much, but conveys so little. Read full review
20
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellOct 17, 2025
Ducournau applies all the tricks of the trade to convince us of greater meaning. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 19, 2025
The madly, bafflingly overwrought and humourless storytelling can’t overcome the fact that everything here is frankly unpersuasive and tedious. Every line, every scene, has the emoting dial turned up to 11 and yet feels redundant. Read full review
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