Coward
MUBI | Release Date: December 25, 2026 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellJun 5, 2026
Most powerfully, Dhont stages a recuperation of queer representation as both resilient and hopeful. Happiness, or perhaps more importantly, contentment, is possible when you seek it and seize it. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 26, 2026
Its urge to find beauty in the wreckage of war has a forced quality, a romanticism at odds with this grim world. Still, with LGBTQ+ stories so rare in the filmography of World War I, it’s a rare and welcome perspective – as well as another showcase for a gifted young filmmaker. Read full review
60
The TimesEd PottonMay 25, 2026
Coward is sweetly played and elegantly mounted but there’s little here that really surprises. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 22, 2026
There is much that is valuable and interesting in this movie, although it is a little predictable in what it has to say and how it says it, though Campagne and Macchia give committed performances as secret lovers in the shadow of war. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMay 22, 2026
As a war movie, Coward isn’t especially unique. Nor is it as a queer romance. But how many straight wartime love stories have we seen? This is a lovely, if rather decorous and reverent, tale of an illicit affair that’s unlikely to cause as much noise as Dhont’s last two films. But in this case, that should actually work to its benefit. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 22, 2026
Dhont has a tactile, compassionate sense of how men — queer men especially, but not exclusively — watch other men, and Coward, by turns breathtakingly violent and sweetly, shiveringly sensual, thrives on that understanding, encouraging audiences to share in its pleasure. Read full review
75
TheWrapBen CrollMay 22, 2026
It plays as an oral, musical history, rich in period research and detail, laying out its narrative and thematic concerns early and never really moving beyond them. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 22, 2026
Exhibiting an emotional restraint sometimes missing from his previous films Girl (2018) and Close (2022), Dhont’s latest proves to be an affecting, familiar drama. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 22, 2026
Everything about the film is fussy, from the direction to the lighting and camerawork to the chiming score. It’s all so studied and lacking in teeth that it lurches into melodrama. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 22, 2026
Unlike other period tales of hidden queer love, including one that debuted at this same festival a year ago, Dhont isn’t interested in dripping his canvas in tragedy. He’s going to leave you with a glimmer of hope. Actually, more than a glimmer. A wry smile of anticipation that suggests all isn’t lost and love can find a way. Read full review
90
Next Best PictureNadia DalimonteMay 22, 2026
Above all, it’s a sensitive piece of storytelling that reaches a place of hopefulness, not in light of the tough subject matter of war, but in spite of it. Read full review
100
AwardsWatchErik AndersonMay 22, 2026
It’s Dhont at his most tender and his most mature, crafting a stunning piece of work and one of the best films of the year, of any year. Read full review
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