Anthropoid
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: August 12, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostChristopher KompanekAug 11, 2016
Aided by co-screenwriter Anthony Frewin, Ellis takes his time in this slow-burning thriller, which often feels more like a character study. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAndy WebsterAug 11, 2016
It takes Sean Ellis’s World War II thriller Anthropoid a while to build steam, but once it does, hang on. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 9, 2016
One of the best pictures of the year and the best movie of the summer. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineOleg IvanovAug 5, 2016
Director Sean Ellis's film offers a potent examination of the moral rectitude of resistance. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 10, 2016
Cillian Murphy is excellent as the fiercely committed Josef Gabčík; Jamie Dornan does very well in the slightly more reticent role of his co-conspirator Jan Kubiš. An intelligent, tough, and gripping movie. Read full review
80
EmpireWill LawrenceSep 5, 2016
A compelling and moving interpretation of a largely forgotten moment in European history. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDavid ClackSep 5, 2016
Thankfully, the film’s final third over-delivers massively. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 19, 2016
Anthropoid is engrossing but it isn’t happy. War movies, at least the best of them, seldom are. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernAug 17, 2016
British director Sean Ellis has a knack for staging the film’s early plotting-the-scheme scenes in dimly lit, monochrome interiors, but the storytelling is disappointingly square. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Marsha LedermanAug 11, 2016
Some of these scenes are masterful – and sometimes difficult to watch. But the real horror – mass revenge killings by the Nazis, including the obliteration of the entire village of Lidice – takes place off-screen. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenAug 11, 2016
Filmed in sepia tones to give it period flavor, infused with a sense of unrelieved tension and paranoia, and climaxing with a furious gunbattle, Anthropoid is a gripping picture. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodAug 5, 2016
If Ellis and co-screenwriter Anthony Frewin’s attention to historical detail hinders Anthropoid initially, it breathes life into what turns into an action packed and inherently cinematic second half. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaAug 11, 2016
Ultimately, Anthropoid is quite gripping, even if it feels like two movies in one. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAllan HunterAug 9, 2016
It is a testimony to the film’s careful construction and honest intentions that you have become so engaged in the fate of the characters. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 10, 2016
Dramatically, it’s not much of a movie, but if you just want to know how things went down, it’s certainly a more exciting précis than Wikipedia’s. Read full review
63
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeAug 11, 2016
The first half has erratic pacing, but past the midpoint the film roars into action. Dornan is monotonous, but Murphy is intense enough for them both; side romances for the men feel phony but apparently are based in fact. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughAug 11, 2016
At its best the film evokes the palpable terror of a city where uniformed thugs could arrest or kill anyone at any time with impunity. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt GlasbyJan 21, 2017
Ellis has a real flair for action – the assassination scene is heart-stopping – but patchy accents, strange pacing and an overstretched budget nearly scupper proceedings. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 12, 2016
Anthropoid has one hell of a story to tell, a story that once again reminds us of a savagery that is not so far in humanity’s past that we need to stop being reminded of it. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 12, 2016
Of all the World War II movies about the plots to kill the architects of the Third Reich, Anthropoid is guilty of being the dullest. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenAug 11, 2016
The movie both embraces and questions the romance of heroism, a provocative paradox that would have had more dramatic oomph if the screenplay were less staid, the characters more fully fleshed. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAug 10, 2016
As a document of an extraordinary event, Anthropoid does the disservice of rendering this bit of World War II history dull and colorless. I’m sure there’s a History Channel show that tells the tale better. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijAug 9, 2016
It’s rather odd that Ellis, who co-wrote the screenplay with former Kubrick assistant Anthony Frewin, can’t come up with anything more action-packed or tension-filled in the first hour than a broken teacup. Valkyrie this is not. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 9, 2016
Despite the film’s gripping final chapter, its heroic Czechoslovakian characters are completely disconnected from the rest of the country, much like their struggle has been omitted from the cinematic legacy of the war they helped to win. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 9, 2016
The trouble is that for all the narrative intrigue and excitement such an endeavor might suggest, director Sean Ellis’ less-than-dramatic recreation of this daring act of defiance proves surprisingly stiff...barely redeemed by an even more surprisingly intense finale. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 9, 2016
It's all sickeningly accomplished, with incidents so tense and audacious that you might not have the headspace to wonder until afterwards, "Hey, wait, what was the point in grinding us through so many terrifying minutes of that?" Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 3, 2016
Ellis and editor Richard Mettler craft an agonizing and unforgettable finale; if their sense of pacing had been as sharp throughout, “Anthropoid” might have fulfilled its potential. Read full review
42
The Film StageDaniel SchindelAug 11, 2016
As wartime thrillers go, Anthropoid is disappointingly limp. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 11, 2016
A bad movie with a good title. Read full review
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