Destroyer
Annapurna Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
18
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
CineVueRosemary DellerJan 25, 2019
While nimbly handled, the closed loop of the film’s structure speaks to the brittle circularity of trauma, but prohibits it from plunging fully into its depths. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 24, 2019
Think of Destroyer as film noir with the brightness turned up. Karyn Kusama’s Los Angeles-set thriller has the bleary, beer-dank air of an overlong house party at which the host has just snapped on the lights: fun’s done folks, now check out the mess. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 1, 2019
If you’re slow, like me, and find yourself bemused by the chronology, don’t worry; your reward will be a topnotch twist toward the end. By rights, that should make you want to watch the movie all over again, in order to sort out what belongs where, except that everything about it is so scummy—even the sight of creamer being stirred into coffee makes you gag—that a second viewing would feel like the grimmest of grinds. Destroyer is a thriller, but only just. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 24, 2018
Destroyer is simultaneously impressive and stand-offish. Persuasively directed by Kusama and convincingly acted by Kidman and expert costars like Toby Kebbell and Sebastian Stan though it is, its determination to live exclusively at the darkest end of the street pays disagreeable dividends. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 9, 2018
Buried in makeup that accentuates her character’s hard-luck existence, Nicole Kidman brings such compelling conviction to her role as a tormented detective that she single handedly imbues the film with urgency and authenticity. That proves crucial, since director Karyn Kusama often miscalculates Destroyer’s sense of its own profundity. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 2, 2018
As ambitious and sometimes unsettling as it is, the film, after crossing back and forth over the line many times, ultimately feels affected in its aspirations toward making some profound statement about self-abasement and sacrifice, making one feel like rejecting the whole thing despite some striking individual moments. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 11, 2019
This is one of those radical change-your-image performances that tries too hard to defy our expectations. Kidman has indeed proved in the past to be quite versatile, but this muddled, scabrous, neo-noir procedural does her no great favors. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniOct 1, 2018
Perhaps Kusama was trying to bring a greater authenticity to the self-destructive detective trope, and fine, that’s a reasonable goal, but the movie around it isn’t quite grounded enough to pull it off. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 3, 2019
It’s a star vehicle, awards bait and a showcase thriller that barely holds your interest as you wait through the whispers and “She looks TERRIBLE” closeups for something exciting or moving to happen. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJan 16, 2019
Destroyer frequently zombie-shuffles into unintentional hilarity, confusing darkness for depth, ugliness for complexity, convolution for smarts. It is just too self-serious to take seriously. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJan 9, 2019
Speaking in a barely audible rasp bordering on monotone, Kidman bravely submerges herself in a performance with some genuinely harrowing emotional moments, and yet the unswerving conviction she brings to the role is conspicuous. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 9, 2019
Destroyer makes “Manchester By the Sea” seem like an afternoon party with clowns and balloon animals. But if there’s a reason to see Destroyer, it’s for Kidman’s performance. It’s to take that journey with her. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 8, 2019
For Kidman, Destroyer is simply the latest in a long career of fascinating, often nervily risk-taking career choices, in which she submerges her lithe grace and porcelain beauty to inhabit the toughest characters and stories. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 28, 2018
The good news about the production is that Ms. Kidman gives a formidable performance in what’s essentially a classic noir thriller reconceived, with a woman at its center, and Ms. Kusama’s direction is superb. (Julie Kirkwood did the stylish cinematography.) The bad news concerns tone, or emotional weather. The film is intentionally dark, but it’s also almost ceaselessly grim. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyDec 25, 2018
This is a pretty rote story, and many of the plot points beggar belief, but Kusama's flourishes help somewhat to elevate the material into something more meditative, a character study of a woman in ruins. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 14, 2018
The grim relentlessness with which Destroyer seesaws between time frames — as if to make sure that no state of abjection, past or present, goes unexplored — wore me out long before the endlessly protracted finish. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 22, 2018
Destroyer is a movie that confuses Kidman’s unmodulated funk for actual depth. In fairness, a brooding depression may be the reality of much police work, but onscreen it plays like a two-hour murder of our patience. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 11, 2018
Kidman fearlessly commits to the filth of it all, whether it’s drunkenly fighting off her daughter’s sleazy boyfriend or jerking off a bed-ridden informant, but her radical transformation and some timeframe trickery can’t mask a plot that feels rather empty. Read full review
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