Butterfly Jam
| Release Date: TBA CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Film VerdictClarence TsuiMay 14, 2026
Balagov‘s latest outing is a warm, colour-saturated and sporadically magical and comical family drama set in a tightly-knit community in Newark, but with tension and trauma looming ever close on its seemingly happy-go-lucky protagonists. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 14, 2026
It’s only once Butterfly Jam seems doomed to repeat the same dark fatalism of Balagov’s earlier work that it suddenly affirms itself as the bittersweet fable that it’s been all along. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 14, 2026
Balagov, however, remains the star attraction of “Butterfly Jam,” his fluent, adventurous command of sound and image keeping the film interesting even when not much is happening on screen, and tangibly atmospheric when the narrative pendulum swings too far in the other direction. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 14, 2026
Balagov is indisputably a filmmaker with his own distinctive vision, ideally matched with Evgueni and Sacha Galperine’s glowering score and with Fray’s nimble shooting style, which often takes its cue to get in close from the knotted bodies on the wrestling mats. Story-wise, however, Butterfly Jam is too diffuse to measure up to the brutally transfixing Beanpole. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMay 14, 2026
The film is very much about male discomfort with tenderness, and Keoghan neatly communicates his internal conflicts in a mature performance. Keough continues to make her case for being one of the era’s great chameleons. Read full review
50
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 14, 2026
An uneven mix of melodrama, eccentricity and hyper-male boisterousness never entirely convinces. Read full review
50
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 14, 2026
Butterfly Jam is usually at its best whenever Keough is in the room, and the rare moments in which her and Keoghan’s performances click perhaps offer a glimmer of what might have been. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 14, 2026
Butterfly Jam is contrived, tonally uncertain, implausible and frankly plain silly in its underpowered kind of magic-unrealism, with some clunky secondhand Mean Streets mob-fraternal dialogue and pedantic ethnic-foodie cred, and elliptically positioning key scenes off camera for no obviously satisfying reason. Read full review
30
Next Best PictureCody DericksMay 14, 2026
Balagov is a fearless filmmaker, unafraid of showing what many directors would avoid. And while that uncompromising spirit has served him well in the past, here it seems that some self-imposed guidelines would’ve spared him from crafting something so purposelessly unpleasant. Read full review
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