Dance First
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 9, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesCharles McNultyAug 9, 2024
The emotional acuity of a writer who felt things too deeply to stoop to cheap sentiment comes through. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 6, 2024
Working from a script by Neil Forsythe, Marsh has created a superficially experimental if tame take on an artist of grim truths and dark comedy. Read full review
60
Screen RantStephen HollandAug 15, 2024
Dance First won’t strike a chord with everyone, but it's also not intended for mainstream appeal, and those who connect with it will do so deeply. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeNov 3, 2023
A paternoster of strong scenes and strong performances serve only to highlight pedestrian writing elsewhere. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithAug 15, 2024
Parts of the film (which can be seen in select theaters and via video on demand) are so good that it’s a shame it strikes so many false notes. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 9, 2024
It frequently seems that what the movie ultimately wants from Samuel Beckett is for him not to have been…well, Samuel Beckett. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 30, 2024
Dance First isn’t exactly bad. It’s just too narrow in focus, too incomplete, a biopic that leaves us “waiting” for an elusive, mythic “author” to truly make his entrance. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 8, 2024
The movie, written by Neil Forsyth, was surely intended as a tribute, but it plays more like an effort to reduce Beckett to easily comprehensible terms — the sort of terms he most likely would have resisted. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeAug 4, 2024
Rather than grappling with the mind and soul of the man who birthed bizarre, fatalistically funny and existentially unsettling works like Waiting for Godot, James Marsh’s film seems content to merely adapt the “Personal Life” section of Samuel Beckett’s Wikipedia page. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 3, 2023
A lot gets packed in here, none of it good. Read full review
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