Evil Does Not Exist
Janus Films | Release Date: May 3, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 11, 2024
Evil Does Not Exist, the new film from Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, is a slow-burning wonder, an eco-fable of meditative beauty and menace, down-to-earth realism, and mythic resonances. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 2, 2024
It’s far rarer when a movie, as this one does, speaks to everyday life and to the beauty of a world that we neglect even in the face of its calamitous loss. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlMay 2, 2024
Hamaguchi presents an uncomplicated tale about contemporary issues—corporate greed, climate change—packed with so many complex narrative beats that it plays like a dense 19th century novel. It’s simple, but it explains life itself. Read full review
100
Screen DailyLee MarshallSep 6, 2023
It is an absorbing film of quiet power. Read full review
95
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 8, 2024
However you choose to interpret it, Evil Does Not Exist lingers, magnificently and furiously. Read full review
90
The New YorkerJustin ChangMay 8, 2024
The incisiveness of Hamaguchi’s ecological critique is matched by the vividness of his characters; you’ll remember the talking points, but also the faces of the people making them. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 8, 2024
In its own discreet, modest way, Evil Does Not Exist leaves us with a haunting sense of personal and ecological apocalypse. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 3, 2024
After so fruitful a collaboration on “Drive My Car,” Hamaguchi and Ishibashi may have topped themselves with something even more compelling. Read full review
90
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMay 3, 2024
Ryusuke Hamaguchi is an expert at crafting films that subtly enthrall our minds, and this is just more proof. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMay 1, 2024
A masterful film that invites contemplation and, in return, delivers lyrical beauty, haunting mystery, and more than a bit of unexpected terror. Read full review
90
Little White LiesXuanlin ThamApr 4, 2024
So carefully and empathetically constructed – even towards its “villains” – that it feels miles away from didacticism, this shapeshifting ecological tale becomes a yearning rumination on the alienations of modern life, and the quietly violent seams where things in this world are changing and dying rapidly while we lack the language to arrive at the same destination, no matter how much people say they’re listening. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 22, 2024
Beginning with its enigmatic title and concluding with a haunting, strange ending, “Evil Does Not Exist” is filmmaking more interested in creating a mood than telling a taut story — but what a mood it is. Read full review
88
Washington PostTy BurrMay 9, 2024
Visually, sonically and thematically, “Evil Does Not Exist” is a rich and subtle experience. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMay 8, 2024
The ambiguous finale provides neither certainty nor respite, and may prove frustrating for some. I had no idea where Hamaguchi’s cautionary tale was taking me, but I remained intrigued until the bitter end. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJake CoyleMay 3, 2024
“Balance is key,” one character says of nature in the film. “Evil Does Not Exist,” though, is boldly uneven. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 29, 2024
Evil Does Not Exist is something different, starting out as a character study cum eco parable and morphing into an enigmatic nightmare. Read full review
85
PolygonJoshua RiveraMay 15, 2024
Hamaguchi slowly pivots away from dispassionate naturalism, building to an impressionistic, opaque finale. Read full review
85
SlashfilmCaroline CaoOct 16, 2023
At first, you might not detect the tonal deception seeded into Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist. Yet, seemingly innocuous nature shots unfold into a thriller. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 17, 2023
Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car worked so beautifully because of the smaller, quiet moments of life, the drives from one place to the next, and the undiscovered moments that we keep hidden. Evil Does Not Exist turns these moments into an entire feature-length film, and while it might seem slight at times, the approach is wonderful in its own right—a master filmmaker taking his time and embracing the silence. Read full review
83
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 6, 2023
Evil Does Not Exist is a slow-moving film with few epiphanies and no answers to the questions it posits. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 6, 2023
A quiet, funny, confounding mystery. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 8, 2024
If you stick with it, Evil Does Not Exist offers rich rewards, as well as lessons, no matter how inscrutable at times. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 8, 2024
While not as satisfying as the director’s two previous films – a jarring ending knocks the picture off balance – this uneasy eco-parable is still very much worth your time. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeApr 4, 2024
What we have here is a humanist matrix that spins calculations in good and ill from all sides. And then it is something else. The film looks to be heading to a place of reassuring compromise when it dramatically veers into something tonally and emotionally distinct. Read full review
80
EmpireArjun SajipApr 3, 2024
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi subverts expectations beautifully, but this brain-teaser makes no bones about the violence that often comes with ‘progress’. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 6, 2023
The final few minutes will baffle some, infuriate others, but it will also be the wildness of the imagination which will have you pondering Evil Does Not Exist long after it has ended. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangSep 6, 2023
It may not be wholly successful, but it certainly is bleakly fascinating to witness a master filmmaker paint so subtle and soothing a portrait of humanity, only to finally, bitterly remind us that there is no soothing nature – human or otherwise – when there’s a bullet in its belly. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 6, 2023
As a penetrating study of character and milieu, it’s the work of a mature and enormously talented filmmaker not afraid to take chances. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 6, 2023
It’s a complex drama, a realist film teetering on the edge of the uncanny, whose very title points the way towards the idea that there are shades of grey in every judgment we make. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de Semlyen
Japanese superstar-in-the-making Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s (Drive My Car) latest film is a touching ecological parable full of little feints and narrative red herrings. Just when you think it’s heading in one direction, it slips off elsewhere, like a fawn in the woods. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMay 9, 2024
To its credit, the film never feels like a patchwork, but rather a cohesive whole. Or to be more specific: a haunting and meditative yet often hilarious cohesive whole. Read full review
78
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerOct 5, 2023
Hamaguchi’s film – and the performance style of Omika, a Hamaguchi crew member moving into acting here – is too controlled to produce an anguished tragedy out of this material, but it’s too unsparing to offer an easy exit. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 15, 2023
Hamaguchi Ryûsuke’s Evil Does Not Exist is a turn away from the filmmaker’s empathy of his earlier work toward an aesthetic that’s jagged and chilly. Read full review
75
The PlaylistAnkit JhunjhunwalaSep 15, 2023
For what it is, the film is immaculately directed and staged with the quiet competence of a superlative filmmaker. Read full review
70
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannMay 11, 2024
It eludes classification, refusing to commit to being one thing and instead asking us to question our relationship with the world around us. Read full review
70
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaSep 6, 2023
A passionate, well-intentioned deviation in style, Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Evil Does Not Exist doesn’t quite hit the mark with its meditations on nature. However, in its best moments, it’s another entrancing dramatic piece from the Japanese maestro, whose strengths lie less in observing natural environments, and more in observing people’s nature. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMay 9, 2024
If not a cohesive whole, then, Evil Does Not Exist still has its captivating moments as a modestly scaled eco-parable. Read full review
50
ObserverLaura BabiakOct 10, 2023
There are moments of beauty and simplicity, but not nearly enough to sustain a feature. There’s meaning to be wrung out of extended shots of trees, lumberjacking, and deer skulls, sure, but the movie’s ambivalence gets old quick. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMay 2, 2024
As pleasing as the film may be to those who treasure ambiguity and nuance, it strikes me as dry and tedious. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMay 11, 2024
For all the beautiful scenery and Thoreau-like contemplation, Evil Does Not Exist stalls, then implodes. Read full review
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