Calvary
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 1, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 15, 2014
Calvary is most assuredly not a comedy. It is a weighty, powerful drama -- albeit one with comic moments -- that dabbles in weighty, powerful themes. Read full review
60
CineVuePatrick GambleMay 16, 2014
By interchanging bawdy gaiety and a ponderous attitude to emphasise the film's spiritual message, Calvary feels extremely disjointed, struggling to balance its dualistic tone on top of its oversized ensemble cast. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 16, 2014
For all the film’s merits, the suspicion persists that McDonagh’s a little too pleased with his own fulminating thesis. Time and again the writing is showing off for effect, delivering a fire-and-brimstone sermon with cocky swagger. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 20, 2014
Calvary becomes a lurid Agatha Christie yarn with something important to say about the church and Ireland that McDonagh can't fully articulate. Pulp keeps getting in the way. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 7, 2014
As pungent as McDonagh’s writing is, it may be his too-easy pessimism that makes Calvary engrossing and thought-provoking, but not great. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyJul 29, 2014
One may feel dissatisfied by the 11th-hour turn toward lyrical fatalism, and mildly insulted by the presumptuous attitude it seems to choose as it sends us on our way. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 2, 2014
Calvary is like a philosophical Agatha Christie mystery. That’s certainly not the worst thing to be. But it’s also the film’s undoing, because the reliance on specific genre cliches undermines the movie’s more serious intentions. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 1, 2014
Those shots are in contrast to those landscapes, which are craggy, primordial. It’s meant to be a haunting combination, and I have colleagues who’ve found it just that, who came out of the movie ashen, devastated. But I found it bludgeoning — I think it gives new meaning to the phrase hammer of God. Read full review
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