Bacurau
Kino Lorber | Release Date: March 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsMar 26, 2020
It isn’t remotely surprising that a political film can be gut-splitting entertainment; if the legacy of the American Western proves anything, it’s this. But Bacurau doesn’t merely reflect that legacy. It outdoes it. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMar 6, 2020
The movie is potent with rage from end-to-end. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 5, 2020
In this sensational genre whatsit, a town finds itself fighting for its very existence. (Good thing Sônia Braga lives there.) Read full review
91
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 17, 2019
Credit where credit’s due, as Bacurau owes a considerable debt to Carpenter–while also taking ample cues from another half-dozen genre auteurs–but in terms of complexity and ambition, this furious political allegory co-written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles (the production designer on Mendonça Filho’s previous features) is very much a case of the students outclassing the master. Read full review
90
PolygonAndrew CrumpMar 10, 2020
The explosive fury of Bacurau’s slow-burn climax is a gratifying payoff to the film’s suspense, but without the deliberate measures taken to make the rest of the story count, it’d ring hollow. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 27, 2020
There’s a reason this movie was a critical and popular success in Brazil: It resonates. And despite the beauty of the weathered local faces this movie celebrates, it resonates for anyone, anywhere, watching it. “What do they call the inhabitants of Bacurau?” a young boy is asked. “People!” he responds. Just so. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 10, 2019
Part siege movie, part rural drama, part gore-soaked freak-out, Bacurau is the one instance where it’s the destination, not the journey, that matters. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyApr 9, 2020
The set-ups and sight gags are deftly handled, though the after-effect is more dispiriting than cathartic. Like Bong-Joon Ho’s Parasite, it’s a film that feels of the moment, that leaves us with the question. And after all this is through, then what? Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 17, 2019
At once both more forceful and more inscrutable than Filho’s previous work, Bacurau plunges deeper into midnight territory as its core ideas take hold, its ghosts become literal, and its heroes take up arms. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 17, 2019
There are those who will surely argue that this is not a tonally coherent film. But I was nonetheless rather elated by the way Filho weaves in so many outside touchstones while still maintaining his core interests in social dynamics and anti-capitalist sentiment. Read full review
81
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganFeb 24, 2020
Bacurau is wildly creative, and its hilarious, Dadaist aura provides an uncanny comfort despite ample bloodshed. This is not to say that the film is without heart-wrenching loss and tearful contemplation of a world on fire. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMar 31, 2020
Sci-fi wipe transitions, 70s-style CinemaScope photography, a drone shaped like a UFO, and a cameo from German actor Udo Kier are clever genre flourishes that playfully deliver the film’s anticolonial politics. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 7, 2020
There are some breathtakingly gorgeous images the movie throws at you — the townsfolk silently waving white handkerchiefs during a funeral — among the few giddily grotesque visuals that you can’t shake. (Pedro Sotero’s cinematography is as stunning as a painting and as psychotropic as the drugs the villagers take before the finale.) Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 28, 2019
Maybe the film loses its head a bit at this point too, with its deeper message lost in the epic bloodshed, but the chances are you’ll be having too much fun to mind. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 17, 2019
The film is a bracingly confrontational commentary on the direction the country is taking in the Bolsonaro era. Propulsive storytelling doesn’t come at the expense of the vividly sketched personality of the community. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 17, 2019
The combination of satire and savagery is pretty fierce and intriguingly unique. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 17, 2019
The resulting genre stew is rich and flavorsome, if also somewhat chunky and uneven. The characters are thinly drawn by design, but Mendonça Filho and Dornelles know how to use the magnetism of their actors to maximum advantage. Read full review
80
TheWrapSteve PondMay 17, 2019
It’s disturbing and messy, a fever dream for a disturbing and messy time in Brazil. And occasionally, it’s a lot of fun, too. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 17, 2019
It is a really strange film, beginning in a kind of ethno-anthropology and documentary style, becoming a poisoned-herd parable or fever dream and then a Jacobean-style bloodbath. It is an utterly distinctive film-making, executed with ruthless clarity and force. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 23, 2020
In its bloody denouement, Bacurau feels like a Spaghetti Western, playing with post-"Seven Samurai" idea of peasants learning to be soldiers at the hands of warriors. But it's also a subversion of that idea, and brings in elements of the old horror conventions about bloodthirsty killers in remote places. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 4, 2021
Without such careful world-building, to an outside observer Bacurau feels like a bunch of bonkers set pieces in a vacuum. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 30, 2020
As a statement on American entitlement and the intersection between capitalism and colonial terror, it’s a frying pan to the back of the skull: clunky but powerful. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSam C. MacJun 3, 2019
The film succeeds as a stingingly personal missive aimed squarely at Brazil’s right-wing president. Read full review
75
The PlaylistBradley WarrenMay 17, 2019
There may not be a map for navigating this gonzo film, but nevertheless, Bacurau is a blood-soaked adventure worth seeking out. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 17, 2019
Though shot in striking anamorphic widescreen and laced with references to John Carpenter, Sergio Leone and the like, Bacurau doesn’t quite work in traditional genre-movie terms. Rather, it demands the extra labor of unpacking its densely multilayered subtext to appreciate. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMay 17, 2019
Though handsome in style and admirable in ambition, this sprawling neo-Western never comes together as a satisfying whole. Read full review
60
CineVueMartyn ConterioMay 17, 2019
This might not be the film you’re quite expecting from the director of arthouse dramas focused on modern life in Brazil, but it fits right in as a variation and continuation of Mendonça Filho’s pet themes. Read full review
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