Bring Them Down
MUBI | Release Date: February 7, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 16, 2025
In Christopher Andrews’s stark, haunted debut – anchored by two soulfully frayed performances by Abbott and Keoghan – violence becomes the only language left to speak when shame, resentment, and desperation have stripped the words right out of these people’s mouths. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 10, 2025
Bring Them Down is an impressive first feature from Christopher Andrews. Read full review
80
iChristina NewlandFeb 7, 2025
This is a gnarly and fascinating thriller whose characters feel genuinely dangerous and unpredictable. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongFeb 4, 2025
The most shocking element of Bring Them Down is the emotional truth at its core; Andrews’ observation of how difficult the cycles of abuse are to break is astute, and even the most sensational elements of the plot have a grim plausibility to them. But this is balanced by the empathy that Andrews and his cast show. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid HughesJan 27, 2025
What unfolds in Andrews’ screenplay, co-written with Jonathan Hourigan, has the grim inevitability of a Greek tragedy, no less violent than the feud at the centre of The Banshees of Inisherin, albeit without that film’s Irish black humour. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 8, 2024
Taut and mournful, it’s a lament for the mistakes made in anger, the wounds that fail to heal, and the past that never truly seems to be past at all. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzFeb 7, 2025
For all its ferocious focus, this is a relatively quiet movie that embraces its smallness. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 6, 2025
Writer-director Christopher Andrews’ brutal and unforgiving and sometimes almost cruelly funny “Bring Them Down” is like a biblical tale brought to life. There are times when this rural west Ireland fable makes “The Banshees of Inisherin” feel like a soft-pedaled buddy comedy. It’s that bleak, and nearly as searing and memorable. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 6, 2025
This portrait of already wounded people who can’t stop inflicting pain on themselves and each other has a great deal of integrity. But if you’re seeking ennobling sentiment, you’ll do well to look elsewhere. Read full review
70
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonSep 13, 2024
Bring Them Down is 105 minutes worth of violence and misery, but it’s great storytelling, nonetheless. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2024
What saves this uneven material is the actors’ committed, anguished turns. Read full review
70
VarietySiddhant AdlakhaSep 10, 2024
It’s grimly funny, and hilariously sad. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 10, 2025
It’s too bloody, too depressing and infuriating, and Andrews makes it his business to not give the viewer much relief or satisfaction with any of it. But it’s also quite good, even if it denies us much that would give the viewer some sense of relief or justice. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassFeb 3, 2025
Bring Them Down uncovers an organic affinity between the genre mainstay of vengeance taking on a life of its own and the force exerted by paternal tradition. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithFeb 7, 2025
On a scene-to-scene basis, it’s an impressively taut film, but it left me wishing for a more compelling conclusion than “people are nasty to one another.” Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 25, 2024
The film brings us down, as well as letting itself down somewhat – a late scuffle in a peat bog is poorly motivated, the ending too vague. But the jangling escalations of the first half still mark Andrews out as a name to watch. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyOct 7, 2024
There are things to admire, but Bring Them Down is a hard film to like. Read full review
60
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 24, 2024
For Andrews, Bring Them Down is a capable, intriguing debut, but it needs more depth than this revenge tale has to offer. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 9, 2024
Mostly, though, it does only that: Shock. Basic, trite, and without any hope for anything better ever happening. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyFeb 6, 2025
Thick with dank atmosphere and well-acted with a cast that includes Colm Meaney and Barry Keoghan, it’s a drama about angry men with mommy issues that starts with a slow burn and ends up to its ears in gore. Read full review
50
The PlaylistAnkit JhunjhunwalaSep 13, 2024
Bring Them Down is Chris Andrews’ debut feature as a writer and director after working in the camera department of several productions. He has a nice feel for the story’s setting and shows some facility filming action. A tighter handle on dramatic construction and character development would enhance his feature filmmaking ventures. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 9, 2024
This violent first feature is carried more by leads Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan than by its dour storytelling. Read full review
50
TheWrapChase HutchinsonSep 9, 2024
You can practically see the more complicated layers of the two men through the eyes of the performers alone, but they’re both left staring at a story that almost stubbornly refuses to excavate them. Read full review
42
The Film StageChristopher SchobertSep 9, 2024
Bring Them Down is not a great film. It’s occasionally compelling thanks to its haunting, almost otherworldly locations in Ireland. Mainly, though, what stands out are performances of the ever-intense Christopher Abbott, Nora-Jane Noone, and, most notably, Barry Keoghan. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 4, 2025
When film-makers aren’t asking people to read their films as westerns they are asking for them to be read as Greek tragedies. For all the commitment of the actors and brooding ambience of the film-making, Bring Them Down can’t quite sustain that comparison. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 3, 2025
In plot terms there is something unsubtle, unconvincing and even absurd in where it’s all heading. Read full review
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