Foe
Amazon Studios | Release Date: October 6, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
22
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzOct 12, 2023
There is an unshakable and electric hum to Foe that ensures director Garth Davis’s work will stay with audiences attuned to its distinct frequency for days, months, perhaps ages. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramOct 5, 2023
Admittedly, the film’s oddly paced, elliptical middle section may leave you scratching your head. But then the twisty third act pulls it all together, sending shivers down the spine. Read full review
76
TheWrapLex BriscusoSep 30, 2023
The film is an emotional rollercoaster bursting full of dynamic tensions, mind-bending twists and shattering truths. It’s the perfect combination of high marital drama and science fiction thinkpiece, and with the lengths the film goes to, Foe is a worthy addition to the emotional sci-fi canon. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 30, 2023
Perverse as it is to cast two of the world’s most talented young actors as the two sides of a curdled marriage, Mescal and Ronan both excel at sinking into themselves, with the latter’s irrepressible force of will squeezing against the walls of the musty farmhouse as if her life were a shoe five sizes too small. Read full review
60
Little White LiesLeila LatifOct 25, 2023
It’s engrossing and purposefully strange, and the images of this climate-change-ravaged world of dried lakes and barren grasslands are bewitching and terrifyingly plausible. But when the inevitable twist comes, it makes about as much sense as using a fundraising model Bob Geldof threw together in the 80s to stave off the 4th horseman of the apocalypse. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 22, 2023
Mescal and Ronan are captivating: her watchful, raw-nerved longing; his stinging sense of betrayal. It almost eases us past an overwrought final twist. Almost, but not quite. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeOct 19, 2023
For all the cast’s best efforts, however, Foe never seems more than a theoretical exercise, a sketch for an uncompleted project. Read full review
60
EmpireElla KempOct 19, 2023
An emotional, if familiar, take on loyalty and technology in a world where love and survival feel near-impossible. Reid’s writing shines and there’s nobody better than Mescal and Ronan to broadcast heartbreak. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiOct 17, 2023
Despite Foe’s shortcomings, it has plenty of heart and something to say. Its visuals are magnetic and Ronan and Mescal give their all in gripping, emotional performances. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 13, 2023
This pensive science-fiction three-hander, adapted by the Lion and Mary Magdalene director and Iain Reid from the latter’s 2018 novel, quickly settles into its solemn, elliptical groove – and then sticks to it so doggedly, it becomes a tonal rut from which the film increasingly struggles to escape. Read full review
60
BBCCaryn JamesOct 6, 2023
Foe plays to the strengths of its actors, two of the most natural and subtle on screen, and is endlessly engaging even though it eventually stumbles into head-spinning narrative problems. Read full review
58
ColliderChase HutchinsonOct 25, 2023
Foe, the beautifully shot yet scattered lo-fi sci-fi mystery thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, is not a good movie. However, it is an interesting one. Read full review
58
Original-CinJim SlotekOct 11, 2023
In Iain Reid’s source-material novel, there are literary tricks that spell it out more clearly. But the script and execution here fails to launch, with too much ”Why?” holding it down. Read full review
55
Paste MagazineTara Bennett Oct 10, 2023
Perhaps what was once haunting and unsettling on the book page has not, in more overt staging, translated well to the screen. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 30, 2023
A sci-fi story that spirals about in circles on its way to a predictable and underwhelming twist and an even less satisfying conclusion. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 13, 2023
Now comes Foe, which is set primarily in the year 2065 and envisions a dystopian world in which the delicate and dangerous balance between humans and sentient AI creations is the basis for a pretentious and empty cautionary tales with some interesting ideas — but it’s mostly a pile of hokey claptrap. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 10, 2023
It would be easy to dismiss Foe as a lugubrious downer, except that the reality of its world feels palpable and that marriage seems real. I believed Ronan and Pescal as two people bound up in love, shared history and torment. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergOct 5, 2023
To their great credit, the Irish stars, often loosely clothed and soaked in sweat from the lack of air conditioning, have such presence and chemistry that it’s possible to believe in their intimacy — the pull and tangle of their bodies, their paroxysms of anguish — and even to pretend in the moment that they have full-fledged characters to play. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 30, 2023
Foe wants to end with a big “Whoa.” Instead, it leaves us going “Huh, interesting” and “Whuuut?” at the same time. Read full review
42
The Film StageMichael FrankOct 4, 2023
It becomes a mess of concepts, issues, and messages, an amalgamation of errors in tone and story. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 23, 2023
Any desire to see two of Ireland’s bright, young things – Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal – finally united on screen will be swiftly drained by Foe, a sci-fi drama desiccated of meaning. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 17, 2023
By fashioning itself a thriller above all else, Foe obstinately opts for the no-man’s land in between both tracks, in the process wasting its tiny, mighty cast, and the opportunity to say anything impactful. Read full review
40
IGNLena WilsonOct 8, 2023
Despite a capable cast and crew, Foe is a muddled mess that feels more like Black Mirror Lite than powerful sci-fi commentary. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 5, 2023
Foe knows the tale it wants to tell. But because of the often mannered, occasionally stagy way that it ends up telling it, this is a movie that has a tendency to be its own worst enemy Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 30, 2023
The film is saved to some degree by the unstinting commitment of Ronan and Mescal, sweating it out in an environment that’s stifling both physically and psychologically. But the screenplay becomes so overwrought that it smothers any emotional connection to them. Read full review
40
The GuardianAdrian HortonSep 30, 2023
The two leads do their best here, but even they cannot scrounge enough feeling out of this desolate sci-fi. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 8, 2024
Foe bores the viewer to tears on the long march towards getting to its point. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 10, 2023
The ending of Foe is not the problem. It’s the beginning and the middle that feel phony: at once as calculated and as uncanny as ChatGPT. Read full review
33
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonSep 30, 2023
It’s difficult to overstate how badly Foe fumbles its heady premise and firecracker cast, a film so dependent on its biggest secret that it’s both predictable and hard to grasp by the time the trigger is finally pulled. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshOct 6, 2023
Everyone here really wants to make something good and moving, but they’re all working so hard to make something out of nothing. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedOct 10, 2023
Written and directed by Garth Davis from a 2018 novel I never want to read by Iain Reid, Foe is not just a bad dream. It’s a colossal nightmare. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloOct 2, 2023
Foe stumbles rather spectacularly by leaning more on melodrama than logic and choosing cliche over originality. Aside from rehashing tropes and offering some laughably bad moments, the film accomplishes little. Read full review
15
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 6, 2023
With everything going for this dystopian thriller about humans being replaced by replicants, including two hottie Irish Oscar nominees in Saorise Ronan and Paul Mescal as young marrieds in crisis, this stifling sci-fi misfire hits theaters as an epic botch job. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineKyle TurnerOct 1, 2023
At every turn, Garth Davis’s Foe not only fails to adequately redress or rework played-out tropes within its high-concept world, but its examination of marriage and identity is also hackneyed. Read full review
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