Fast Color
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 19, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 18, 2019
Working with an economical running time of 100 minutes and a relatively modest budget, Hart infuses Fast Color with genuinely moving drama, an engrossing, supernatural-sci-fi mystery and some pretty darn impressive special effects. Read full review
85
TheWrapMonica CastilloApr 19, 2019
When all the puzzle-like pieces come together, the movie’s characters, story, score and emotions soar. The pace of that progress may feel slow, but things never get too quiet. It’s a movie with a racing pulse, and you can feel its heart in every frame. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKimber MyersApr 18, 2019
There should be more films like Fast Color. Movies that demonstrate that you don’t need a giant budget or decades of established IP to do superhero or sci-fi well on the big screen. Read full review
83
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerMay 10, 2018
It’s intelligent, frequently resonant, and even wryly funny at points in its own weary way. This is sci-fi which trusts its audience to fill in the blanks and do just a little bit of the heavy lifting, and it’s better off for it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 18, 2019
Moody and strange, Fast Color has a solemnity that haunts almost every frame. Read full review
75
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanApr 19, 2019
Pacing notwithstanding, Fast Color succeeds on the strength of its ideas. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattApr 19, 2019
Mbatha-Raw brings a fierce, quiet containment to the lead role, and Hart builds so much mood through her atmospheric cinematography and deliberately slow pacing that it nearly papers over the sketched-in quality of the script. Eventually, though, you start to wish her characters would speak in more than just vague koans and disaster-movie platitudes. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshApr 19, 2019
Hart and Horowitz's script connects the dots on the meaning and messages of the film, which is thrilling in its radicalism. But the execution is heavy-handed, sapping the joy of discovery from the film packed with so much originality, brilliance and beauty to be discovered. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyApr 19, 2019
Threaded through with interesting thoughts about matriarchy, climate change and generational trauma, Fast Color tries to do a little too much, and there are maybe one too many things shoehorned in, but Hart wisely keeps the focus intimate, staying close to the characters. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 18, 2019
Fast Color is a nifty little film, a smart, adventurous and surprising production made with visible care and considerable love. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAllison ShoemakerApr 15, 2019
While the story may be flimsy in places, the performances are anything but. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMar 16, 2018
Despite some obvious budgetary constraints and irksome plot holes, the movie strives to provide an alternative vision of the superhero narrative tied to the genuine experiences of people learning to come out of their shells and confront a new future for blackness, motherhood, and women taking charge. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 3, 2019
In the lead, Mbatha-Raw delivers a shaken, exposed performance that hints at the more familiar stories of domestic trauma (drug use, suicide, having to give up a child) that this otherwise super story might stand in for. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 17, 2019
The tightly-focused origin story of Ruth, played with ferocity and feeling by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, is still one hell of a heroic odyssey. Read full review
58
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 26, 2018
Fast Color, like A Wrinkle in Time, provides an empowering message without much to latch on to. Hart, who impressed with her debut drama Miss Stevens, offers a banal, tired narrative, despite strong performances and occasionally beautiful visuals. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 3, 2022
Hart is so sparing with her action beats and so staid and self-serious in her supernatural touches that the picture never sparks to life. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonApr 18, 2019
Fast Color is disciplined and restrained, yet feels a few tweaks away from being the rousing origin story it aspires to be. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenFeb 26, 2019
Hart has fashioned a tale of matriarchal inheritance, but one whose fierce message is undercut rather than deepened by its child's-book clarity. The intriguing setup receives underpowered execution, the intended jolts landing all too softly. Read full review
50
VarietyAmy NicholsonMar 16, 2018
Ultimately, Fast Color’s thesis is more inspirational than the film, which often seems like it, too, is struggling to swirl itself into something more solid. Instead, its magical sparks don’t quite congeal as the audience can’t help hoping a movie this empathetic and unusual reaches transcendence Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedApr 19, 2019
One hour and forty minutes of gibberish about three generations of empowered female superheroes wreaking havoc on a postapocalyptic twilight zone, written and directed by a terrible filmmaker named Julia Hart. She’s no Rod Serling. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 17, 2019
Fast Color is not a success, in that it’s not enjoyable as entertainment. It doesn’t hold an audience. Read full review
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