Augustine
Music Box Films | Release Date: May 17, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 16, 2013
Everything depends on the subtlety of the direction and the charisma of the performances. Augustine is intellectually satisfying partly because it communicates its ideas at the level of feeling, through the uncanny power of Soko’s face and body. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineTomas HachardMay 12, 2013
Alice Winocour's take on this true story carries the superficial trappings of a period drama, but its perspective is entirely contemporary. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMay 16, 2013
The film's dark beauty and the quiet intensity of the performances have a discomforting pull. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 16, 2013
Soko is terrific, but it is Mr. Lindon who delivers the performance of the film, his internalized consternation amounting to an eloquent dispatch from the war between the sexes. Read full review
80
Village VoiceErnest HardyMay 14, 2013
The film is something of a paradox, simultaneously passionate and dispassionate, its ending tethered to both bruised triumph and a sense of things falling apart. Read full review
80
Time OutEric HynesMay 14, 2013
Plays like a gothic prequel to David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method," one in which human flesh is viewed as both horrific and erotic terrain. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungMay 10, 2013
Augustine's script is a coherent and valid artistic reinterpretation of the case, told against an unfussily atmospheric evocation of late 19-century Paris - persuasive even though the dialogue seldom sounds particularly old-fashioned. Read full review
80
VarietyLeslie FelperinMay 10, 2013
Anchored by two intense, intertwined perfs by veteran Vincent Lindon and relative newcomer Soko, a musician who also composed the pic’s growling, atmospheric score, this period drama offers a coolly febrile study of madness, Victorian sexual politics and power. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsMay 16, 2013
Ultimately, Winocour does stage an instance of what could be called love. It's unconvincing narratively, alas, and an odd disruption of the tone in a film that is otherwise bracingly clinical. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 15, 2013
It’s ironic that a movie about social restrictions is at its best when it restrains itself—that is, when it treats its characters as characters rather than figures, and its plot as drama rather than statement. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireJun 21, 2013
Ultimately, while this character-based drama proves consistently engrossing, it leaves various pertinent and fascinating issues frustratingly unexplored. Read full review
63
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMay 16, 2013
Winocour skillfully films Augustine being exhibited for other doctors in several disturbingly erotic scenes, but elsewhere Soko’s stolid, one-note demeanor takes a toll. The script, which gives Augustine no background and mostly shows her either being “treated” or having an episode, doesn’t help. Read full review
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