Bodied
| Release Date: November 2, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisNov 1, 2018
With visuals as kinetic as its language, Joseph Kahn’s Bodied is an outrageously smart, shockingly funny satire of P.C. culture whose words gush so quickly you’ll want to see it twice. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 31, 2018
From crisp academic arguments to sick burns, words spew, stutter, and startle, and as delivered by a totally committed Worthy, a soulful Jackie Long, and a posse of actors and rappers from the scene, the wordplay is dizzying, mesmerizing and intoxicating. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 31, 2018
Part rap musical, part social satire, with elements of Westerns and kung fu pictures, Bodied is one of the funniest, freest movies of the year. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric Kohn
Bodied is pure zany fun disguised as a pure provocation, and sometimes vice versa, mainly because any attempt to characterize its narrative as problematic proves its point. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 4, 2018
Worthy is a marvel, transitioning from pasty wallflower to a glowering, unencumbered threat. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBrian ThompsonNov 1, 2018
Dense in content but also delivered at an intense pace – much like the raps themselves – the script by Kahn and Alex Larsen (a prominent Toronto rapper under the moniker of Kid Twist) balances the harsh directness of rap lyricism with academic analysis, without alienating fans of either realm. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan Mintzer
If the movie runs long in places, the vibrant performances from Worthy and the rest of the cast help push things ahead to the grand finale, and there are enough dynamo battles from start to finish to keep hungry rap fans satisfied. Read full review
80
VarietyAndrew Barker
Pummeling, overlong, and at times a bit too proud of its own provocations, Bodied is nonetheless a feverishly entertaining spectacle, and Kahn’s willingness to put every liberal piety on the Summer Jam screen proves intoxicating. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 31, 2018
So yes, Bodied is a comedy of ill manners, fraught as it is with a veritable encyclopedia of contemporaneous qualms confronted and contested with some seriously dope hustle and flow. Tag this one #badassseriousfun. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 7, 2018
Focused on one cocky white student’s foray into the world of California battle rap, Bodied is at times vile in its content and bananas in its execution. But Kahn is not a mere shock artist, and as the film progresses and twists its perspective, it’s clear the director is playing a much deeper, more complicated and extremely messy game. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleChad JonesNov 6, 2018
Director Joseph Kahn and writer Alex Larsen exhibit tremendous glee in their takedown of everything that even smacks of political correctness, though at two hours, that excitement causes much of the dramatic tension in the plot to dissipate before the climactic battles. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubApril WolfeNov 1, 2018
Simultaneously entertaining, overwhelming, compelling, and grating, Bodied raises its hand and talks until words mean nothing and everything. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 1, 2018
For its first 90 minutes, Bodied dazzles, ducks and dishes through a corner of hip hop most of us only experience through documentaries or Youtube clips. Here’s a movie that takes the form seriously, and gives us a taste of how hilarious it can be — for those not on the receiving end of these epic couplets of insult. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 29, 2018
The anti-P.C. scorn that establishes a white boy's nervous entry into rap gradually becomes a sincere, if hilarious, treatise on the impossibility of reducing art to value judgments. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy Vishnevetsky
It’s so thickly packed with technical and verbal dazzle that whatever biting point it might have had to make ends up completely lost. Read full review
75
The Film StageEthan Vestby
Kahn’s film taken on its own terms doesn’t seem to be striving for anything beyond an in-the-moment provocation, even if it has the occasional insight. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJordan Ruimy
Topics such as race, poverty, masculinity and politics are tackled in thought-provoking ways. It all makes for an entertaining, if not slight, ride that proves Kahn has the chops to graduate into feature films and maybe has a genre classic in him just screaming to get out. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 6, 2018
The artistry here lies in the mutations and permutations of language and rhythm that are spoken onscreen. Bodied is uneven, but it has the fire where it counts. Read full review
67
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMay 10, 2018
It’s a provocation, and for the most part, it’s an effective one. Yet for a film all about verbal and physical blows, Bodied seems to grow skittish when it comes to landing the nastiest ones, the ones that would call its own ideals into question. It’s just insightful enough to leave audiences wishing that it were more so. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyCraig D. LindseyNov 1, 2018
While the movie does address white people’s thorny relationship with rap and cultural appropriation, it demonstrates how delicate satirizing that can be when it gets kind of serious near the end — a long, long end — and suggests that being the best at battle rap can also mean being the worst. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearNov 1, 2018
That’s the real Boss Battle of Bodied: Major Rush vs. Missed Opportunity. Whether you pick a winner here or think they fight it out to a draw is your call. Read full review
45
Film Journal InternationalAndré HerefordNov 8, 2018
What might be considered devastating or dead funny here will be highly subjective, but none of it captures the wit of producer Eminem’s “Slim Shady,” which rolls under the closing credits. Read full review
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