Carmen
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 21, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 5, 2023
Admittedly, Carmen is an acquired taste. But if you’re in the mood for something that will stun your senses, I highly recommended it. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comNell MinowApr 21, 2023
As in Almodóvar’s films, the heightened use of color and settings is stunning, and the filmmakers are not afraid to express passionate emotion. That creates movie magic. Read full review
85
The Daily BeastNick SchagerApr 21, 2023
Capturing the pulse-pounding emotional whirlwind of its source material (and its characters), it’s a florid reimagining that’s at once bold, beautiful, and, at its peak, brilliant. Read full review
80
TheWrapTomris LafflyApr 28, 2023
Even when Carmen occasionally hits some narrative roadblocks with the trio of writers not knowing how to fluently weave together dance and plot, Barrera and Mescal consistently burn the screen, and our foolish hearts. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarApr 21, 2023
The evocative, if narratively slight, doomed romance is charged with otherworldly intensity. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 3, 2023
Carmen is more a movie of tableaux and emotions than a story with a clean linear narrative that leads us along moment by moment. It’s so far from being a literal “Carmen” that one can barely call it an adaptation. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 24, 2023
You’ll see lots of movies in 2023, and you’ll forget most of them. But Carmen is so sincerely passionate and peculiar that you’re bound to remember it. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeApr 18, 2023
By stripping the story back to its most elemental form, Benjamin Millepied makes it feel mythic, poetic, and captivatingly romantic. Read full review
70
SlashfilmJeff EwingApr 18, 2023
Carmen is a largely enjoyable outing, fueled by a fresh take on the narrative and two leads with great expressiveness and a lot of on-screen chemistry. Barrera's dancing is truly beautiful, the choreography is inspired, and the gorgeous score pulls it all together. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 5, 2023
What the film itself is trying to communicate proves more elusive; whatever meaning Millepied meant to impart by tethering this “entirely new and unique artistic endeavor” to a century-and-a-half-old opera never quite made sense to me. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 3, 2023
Carmen, the debut film from French dancer-choreographer Benjamin Millepied, is an example of a work that flagrantly colours outside the recognized lines, blending melodrama, myth, dance and stagey spectacle. The result doesn’t coalesce into a neat bundle, but at moments, it’s peculiarly exciting. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichApr 11, 2023
Benjamin Millepied’s Carmen is stretched across a few too many borders to ever feel like it’s standing on solid ground. And yet, it’s undeniably exhilarating to watch one of the world’s most accomplished choreographers team up with one of its most virtuosic composers (Nicolas Britell) for the kind of aggressively unclassifiable movie that would never exist if not for these two artists reaching beyond their disciplines to create it themselves. Read full review
64
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 2, 2023
Carmen is a wild and unrestrained attempt to empty its director’s entire brain onto the screen, and for that it deserves recognition. But the ultimate result slips too easily between heroic effort and hot mess. Read full review
60
Little White LiesRobyn QuickJun 1, 2023
Millepied’s foray into directing does well to shine the spotlight on Barrera and Mescal’s chemistry, as well as demonstrating how you can tell a story through movement alone. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJun 1, 2023
None of these bits fit together. Each is tolerably entertaining on its own terms. Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeMay 30, 2023
It’s a striking, ambitious film, but there is something about the tone – both glossy and grittily real, stylising everything to mythic proportions – that left me a bit cold. Read full review
60
Total FilmFay WatsonMay 23, 2023
Despite the leads’ chemistry, Carmen doesn’t manage to turn these sparks of brilliance into something bigger. The focus on dance over dialogue doesn't help a meandering plot that never feels like it’s getting anywhere. And while the Mexican/US border offers ripe context for political discourse, the script only scratches the thematic surface. Read full review
50
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiMay 5, 2023
Ambitious ideas and stunning visuals do not make for a great film, but Millepied should consider following his instincts to fight for an all-dance musical for his next feature. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 1, 2023
Overwrought and overthought, this Carmen somehow winds up being underbaked, as Millepied throws various ideas at the screen, with precious few taking hold with any conviction. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeApr 21, 2023
This flamenco-inspired Carmen is often strangely shy about its terpsichorean impulses, with dance sequences functioning as isolated, somewhat haphazard setpieces rather than as a consistent storytelling medium. Read full review
42
ColliderChase HutchinsonMay 4, 2023
While there are many promising pieces being assembled, with arresting visuals bolstered by the performances of Mescal and Barrera, any awe to be had in Carmen becomes dashed by its own emptiness. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 1, 2023
The dancing and photography are striking, and the acting’s perfectly fine. But the sum of it all is a moony inertia, lacking any awakening spark of life. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJoshua BaroneApr 20, 2023
They make for a film with elements of dance on camera, musical, of-the-moment melodrama and visual poetry — but without a thorough commitment to any one of those and few, if any, moments of coalescence. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 19, 2023
Should you care to dig into a contemporary interpretation of a centuries-old canon work, you can skip this Carmen. If you feel the need to watch a sweaty sex symbol pound a punching bag while shirtless, we have a movie just for you. Read full review
40
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaApr 11, 2023
Whenever it dares to display hints of dreamlike abstraction, Carmen quickly returns to its rote formless-ness, as a heatless desert romance about a pair of non-characters on the run. Neither mysterious nor boisterous, it’s one of the most head-scratching musicals in years. Read full review
30
TheWrapRobert AbeleApr 11, 2023
Millepied’s debut . . . is a woefully pretentious and uninvolving slog, an arthouse screen-saver only sporadically ignited by its two best components: composer Nicholas Britell and Almodovar regular Rossy de Palma as a flamboyant nightclub owner-performer. Read full review
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