Camp X-Ray
IFC Films | Release Date: October 17, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
17
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 26, 2014
One of the strengths of Sattler’s screenplay is his refusal to make this a straightforward drama about enemies, injustice or dehumanizing persecution. He makes it about empathy, and in doing so broadens the intimate story to find thematic universality. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 23, 2014
It's that kind of performance, while holding her own with misogynistic soldiers and combing her hair with a plastic knife, that makes Stewart's talent stand at attention more than anything else. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzOct 17, 2014
Camp X-Ray has cinematic and moral intelligence. Read full review
70
VarietyRob NelsonJan 26, 2014
Camp X-Ray is most commendable for believably depicting the U.S. military from a female’s point of view. Read full review
66
Film.comWilliam GossJan 20, 2014
With its painfully plain-spoken conflicts and eventually oversold gestures of kindness, Camp X-Ray may offer frustratingly little insight into the hazy world of wartime morality, but if nothing else, it suggests that Stewart may escape her own “Twilight”-shaped prison yet. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramNov 6, 2014
The gray, drab monotony of the setting seeps into the marrow of the prison drama Camp X-Ray, though it’s invigorated, somewhat, by strong central performances from actors on opposite sides of a locked steel door. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 22, 2014
First-time writer/director Peter Sattler finds a few surprises to throw at us in this somewhat conventional “Stockholm Syndrome” story. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 18, 2014
Watching Ali and Cole (and, of course, Stewart and Maadi), we find ourselves wishing that they would genuinely get the chance to better understand each other. Do they, by the end? We’re not sure. On that score, Camp X-Ray remains admirably open-ended. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 16, 2014
Camp X-Ray isn’t anti-American, despite much of Ali’s rhetoric. It is about the evils of ignorance, wherever it rears its ugly head. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 16, 2014
Despite the movie’s gripping performances and the verisimilitude of many elements, I simply don’t believe the story. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 15, 2014
OK, haters: Here’s the movie meant to silence your complaints about Kristen Stewart’s acting range. And it might, if you can sit through all of it. Read full review
60
The DissolveMike D'AngeloOct 15, 2014
A credulity-straining duet between two fine actors. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 14, 2014
For much of its running time, Camp X-Ray stands as the fullest on-screen imaginative treatment of two of the defining developments of the last 15 years of American life: the deployment of women in our volunteer army, and the indefinite detention of men we think, but can't quite prove, deserve it. Read full review
60
The TelegraphAmber WilkinsonJan 26, 2014
It is down to the strength of the acting that the film succeeds as far as it does. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernOct 16, 2014
The depiction of Guantánamo Bay as a banal, ugly hole of a place waiting to be condemned makes for a compelling first half hour in this military drama. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnJan 26, 2014
In between the meandering exchanges lies an unquestionably thoughtful interrogation of a broken system. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 30, 2014
First-time writer-director Peter Sattler keeps things glum and unsentimental, then tosses it all up in the air with a syrupy ending that derails everything. On another movie, the high-corn finale might have worked; here, it just feels patently false. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 23, 2014
By boiling too much down to black and white, Camp X-Ray's ability to say something significant is diluted. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithOct 16, 2014
Stewart’s restrained performance is affecting, the film seems well-researched about what it’s like to try to deal with Gitmo detainees who throw their own feces, and it isn’t as tendentious as the average Hollywood take on the subject. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubVadim RizovOct 15, 2014
X-Ray is extremely dull, and unwisely trusting in the power of its talented central duo to carry the film. Read full review
44
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 26, 2014
Camp X-Ray never makes the bond between this particular woman and this particular prisoner feel genuine or organic. Their relationship (platonic, obviously) smacks more of screenwriter contrivance than of two put-upon souls finding each other under duress. Read full review
42
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicOct 18, 2014
Camp X-Ray is as transparent in its message as the title suggests, and the scan shows a malignant tumor in the very bones of the film’s structure. An on-the-nose approach smothers all subtext into submission and leaves nothing of interest alive. Read full review
40
The GuardianXan BrooksJan 26, 2014
Sattler's film leans on its actors too heavily. It heaps too many implausibilities upon their trembling shoulders. After an hour in Camp X-Ray, the strain starts to show. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 26, 2014
Just as you're reeling from the tackiness of this premise, set within such an explosive context, the plot doubles down on it. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneOct 17, 2014
Peter Sattler's film feels quintessentially Sundance: an expensively mounted treatise on important issues that's terrified to dig in obsessively, yet so ramrod-stiff with indignation that it never comes anywhere near compelling entertainment. Read full review
More From This Movie

54 Critic Reviews

7.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL