EO
Janus Films | Release Date: November 18, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireAlex GodfreyJan 30, 2023
A beguiling and often brutal look at the life of a donkey, this hijacks your heart, your mind, your ears and your eyes from start to finish. Read full review
100
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 11, 2023
The effect is eerie, profound and emotional. As a mirror back onto humanity’s foibles and criminal excesses, EO is the perfect heir to Bresson’s long-suffering Balthazar. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 7, 2022
In EO, the camera doesn’t just follow the story or record the action. Its restless, exploratory movements express a kind of shared consciousness, a spirit of communion among different members of the animal world, whether they’re running together in a field or sharing the same tight enclosure. It’s the grace of this movie to extend that communion to the human beings who pass in front of the camera, and whose fates are tightly bound up with EO’s, whether they realize it or not. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)C.J. PrinceNov 27, 2022
It’s impossible to guess where things will end up from one second to the next, which may sound daunting, but in the assured hands of Skolimowski and his crew, EO is downright exhilarating. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 17, 2022
No movie that I’ve seen this year has moved me as deeply, made me feel as optimistic about cinema or engaged me with such intellectual vigor as “EO,” whose octogenarian genius auteur and all the donkeys who play EO — Hola, Tako, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco and Mela — deserve all the love and the carrots, too. Read full review
91
Original-CinLiam LaceyNov 27, 2022
What draws us in is the inventive and luminous cinematography from Michal Dymek (with additional footage by Pawel Edelman and Michal Englert), using drone shots, fish-eye lenses and red and blue filters. Accompanied by an unsettling electronic score, the donkey-in-a-disco effect is trippy, a hallucinogenic projection of what it might be like to live in an animal’s consciousness, including its dreams and flashbacks. Read full review
90
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 3, 2023
This is a profoundly serious film, one concerned about our disregard for animals and our disintegrating ecosystems, but it is also restlessly alive. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekNov 21, 2022
There is no more beautiful-looking film this year; shot by Michal Dymek, it often looks lit from within, glowing as softly as a lantern. And even beyond that, EO may be one of the greatest movies ever made about the spirit of animals, as much as we can know it. Read full review
90
Paste MagazineLuke HicksOct 24, 2022
EO seems to be getting at the rhythm of life—up, down, happy, sad, joyous, torturous, cyclical, always changing, never fully understood. That’s how we see ourselves most preciously in EO. We’re never in control, even when we think we are. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 2, 2023
The majesty of this film comes from how the director and his team use an often surreal mix of music, editing, sound, and image to allow the viewer to experience the world as we assume EO does. Read full review
88
Washington PostMark JenkinsDec 12, 2022
Through a donkey’s large and expressive eyes, Eo shows us the beauty of the world and the cruelty of humanity. Read full review
88
ObserverOliver JonesNov 22, 2022
EO is a successful attempt by 84-year-old Polish filmmaker and sometimes actor Jerzy Skolimowski to both update and add color to the cinematic conversation about despair, purpose, and braying that Bresson started more than a half century ago. Read full review
85
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesNov 29, 2022
EO is an incredible film, but do be aware it does skew bitter, especially at the finale. Read full review
83
IndieWireAdam SolomonsMay 26, 2022
In Bresson’s version, it’s the humans around the donkey who are the true center of the story. Not so in EO. This is Donkeyvision, and we’re better off for it. Read full review
83
The Film StageDavid KatzMay 25, 2022
Skolimowski uses cinema to create a non-headset-required virtual-reality experience of another creature’s life—an empathy machine, if you will. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 18, 2023
Bizarre, beautiful, moving and playful, this is an oddity to cherish, with depths that only reveal themselves – entirely aptly – on the hoof. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeFeb 17, 2023
Yet there are also moments of heart-stopping tenderness and beauty. Read full review
80
Little White LiesMark AschFeb 3, 2023
It’s also shot through with the outré symbolism and impulsivity that have long characterised its director’s long, strange career, particularly its late, nothing-to-prove stages. In short, Jerzy Skolimowski is 84 years young, and he is absolutely vibing. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellFeb 2, 2023
EO is at once a cinematic curiosity, a compelling drama and a harrowing portrait of cruel whimsy. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 26, 2022
Despite a shred of story that’s told episodically, EO, which clocks in at a concise 86 minutes, can be an engrossing experience. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 26, 2022
A potent emotional charge, very contemporary eco-consciousness, and film-making that at its best fairly sizzles in its strangeness mark out EO as an animal film that stands defiantly on its own hooves. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 26, 2022
EO is a damning polemic on our relationship to other intelligent species — as free labor, food and companions — as seen through the dewy, wide eyes of a donkey whom we come to adore. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleAlejandra MartinezDec 8, 2022
Pure, tender cinema is rare nowadays, but EO delivers Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 28, 2022
EO has a message, and it’s somewhat bleak and generally told in a decidedly oblique fashion. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 21, 2022
It's as much an anthropological pseudo-documentary as it is a drama, one that sometimes evokes the Terrence Malick philosophy of "The Thin Red Line," which began by insisting that humans are a part of nature and that when humans war with other humans, it is nature warring with itself. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 12, 2022
EO feels freed of plot, free of expectation, driven only by the need to honor its own internal, poetic drive. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRory O'ConnorMay 26, 2022
Eo is a joyful, experimental, and strangely moving piece of filmmaking that doesn’t always take itself seriously—yet it is nothing if not sincere. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsNov 22, 2022
Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, a winding misadventure about a sweet-tempered donkey, inarguably qualifies as an animal’s-eye view of all that’s warm and cruel, comical and arbitrary about human nature. Read full review
70
SlashfilmRyan LestonMay 26, 2022
Skolimowski's close camera work and gripping story keep us alongside EO every step of the way. We're all rooting for him. And even when scenes veer ever more into the surreal side of things, we can't help but feel connected to the little donkey that could. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2022
I’m not sure this is my favourite Skolimowski film, but it is engaging in many ways: beautifully photographed, sentimental and surreal in equal measure; and also stubborn – as stubborn as its hero – in its symbolism and stark pessimism. Read full review
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