Corpus Christi
Film Movement | Release Date: February 19, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 4, 2020
A quite interesting and irresistible movie, a sort of cross between Paul Schrader’s recent film of spiritual crisis, “First Reformed,” and Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can.” An impostor as anguished priest. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 4, 2020
What ensues in Corpus Christi, Jan Komasa’s absorbing and spiritually attuned drama, turns out to be a fascinating exercise in fake-it-till-you-make-it, with a hefty dose of fatalism and small-town hypocrisy thrown in for maximum provocation. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 27, 2020
This is a blistering drama, intense, disturbing and inescapably thought-provoking, a film that gets its power from a merging of potent opposites. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 26, 2020
Bielenia's damp-eyed performance is the broken heart of this restrained and low-key narrative. Read full review
89
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiFeb 19, 2020
It’s a film that engages with the dour without becoming bitter, and a film that allows for redemption but only through the hardest possible work. It’s a film that’s built on a lie but sees only the underlying truth. What an astounding religious drama, and what a beautifully realistic morality play. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 19, 2020
Director Jan Komasa’s film — nominated this year for the international-feature Oscar — may feel a tad slow at times, but Bielenia is never less than totally compelling. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 24, 2020
I found the entire enterprise a touching, rough-hewn delight, never sparing us the explicit sex and violence of Daniel’s life “before,” moist-eyed in seeing how his “outside the collar” thinking is a tonic for a tortured town that needs to move on. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterJan 10, 2020
Bielenia captures a vivid sense of the emotions that Daniel experiences from the alertness of a trapped animal at the offenders institution to the euphoria that seems to surge through him after the delivery of a rousing sermon. His committed performance and Komasa’s assured storytelling convince us that God can work in mysterious ways. Read full review
80
Film ThreatHanna B.Jan 10, 2020
The film is an important one, but above all, it is an exceptionally pleasing and easy one to watch despite its density. This is partly due to Bartosz’s fantastic performance showing great acting range by going through a whole spectrum of emotions very convincingly and subtly. Read full review
80
The GuardianLeslie FelperinJan 10, 2020
Often moving but also disquieting and even intermittently funny, this drama unfurls a spiritual parable that is uniquely Polish but accessible to all. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloFeb 18, 2020
It deviates enough from formula — especially in its arresting ending, which takes full advantage of Bielenia’s haunted visage — to be worth seeing. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDerek SmithFeb 17, 2020
It’s within the murky realm of self-doubt and spiritual anxiety that it’s at its most audacious and compelling. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakJan 10, 2020
Bielenia delivers a fantastic performance as his character overcomes insecurities and regret to speak the words he knows from experience can help those who’ve lost their way. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearFeb 19, 2020
Corpus Christi doesn’t skimp on the humanity; the film earns the slow smiles it brings to your face. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneFeb 10, 2020
Whenever the movie strays from its hero, you feel oddly impatient to get back to him, to watch his cravings do battle with his conscience, and to wonder anew what’s burning in his blue-green gaze. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 14, 2020
All of this makes for compelling dramatic conflict, and it’s satisfying to watch an impostor shake up the status quo. But there’s also a soap opera-like dimension to Corpus Christi that threatens the more thoughtful aspects of the script. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 10, 2020
There's visual command and a compelling intimacy to the storytelling, plus intellectual engagement in the reflection on who gets to claim nearness to God. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyApr 23, 2020
Even when events get intense, even violent, and they do, there’s nothing abrupt. Corpus Christi never erupts. It unfolds. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergFeb 18, 2020
The idea that a charlatan might offer more solace than a real priest is a trite concept, but it’s one that Corpus Christi portrays with conviction. The movie rests on the shoulders of Bielenia — or rather, in his eyes, which photograph as a chilling gray. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 10, 2020
The finale is a gut-punch, but it arrives too long after Komasa has already exhausted most of his story's, and leading man's, energy. Read full review
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