Hostiles
Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: December 22, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 4, 2018
The film’s intentions are noble enough, but its story doesn’t always live up to them. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaDec 15, 2017
Hostiles is a brutal if well-intentioned film that doesn’t help its cause with its lack of development of its Native characters. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
A flawed, but interesting drama. Read full review
58
The Film StageJared MobarakDec 20, 2017
Every single action proves overt to the point of superficiality with Hostiles becoming less introspective drama than unsubtle parable. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 14, 2017
Like Cooper’s Rust Belt faux-noir "Out Of The Furnace," it’s an exercise in strained seriousness, the potential ironies and dramatic tensions lost in a repetitive, episodic, and politically vapid narrative. Read full review
58
The PlaylistGregory Ellwood
Bale and Pike are superb. Despite some melodramatic tendencies and strange choices in Cooper’s script they make you have sympathy and compassion for each of their characters. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 18, 2018
Bale operates in full brood throughout. Studi is a strong presence stymied by the movie’s misplaced priorities. Hostiles is another Western in which Indian characters are props for white man problems. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJan 4, 2018
What is Cooper after here? He seems to want us to gasp at the naturalistic horror of it all, drawn from history and accompanied with the sober denunciation of actual frontier massacres (Blocker is a veteran of Wounded Knee), but the parade of grotesque violence (murders, rapes, suicides) suggests something more surreal, less literal. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 4, 2018
Despite the film’s length and aspirations, its anthropological correctness and historically accurate gore, Bale’s transformation from stone killer to empathetic ally is unconvincing. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 29, 2017
The bare script seems written by telegram, reducing the characters to pieces on a historical chessboard, and the portentous pace and lugubrious tone of Cooper’s direction take the place of substance. Read full review
50
IGNWilliam BibbianiDec 21, 2017
Scott Cooper directs Hostiles with an eye for quote-unquote “greatness” but the actual material simply isn’t deep enough to justify the solemn presentation. It’s not entertaining, it’s not illuminating, it’s not even complicated. It’s mostly just a bummer. Read full review
50
Village VoiceDanny KingDec 21, 2017
Cooper has yet to elevate his sensibility beyond a choked, self-inhibiting intensity. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter Debruge
Though it basically argues that the surest way to overcome racism is to spend some time getting to know “the other,” Cooper’s film offers audiences no such opportunity, depriving its native characters of so much as a single scene in which they are treated as anything more than abstract plot devices in service of the white folks’ enlightenment. Read full review
45
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 19, 2018
Though the film seeks to avoid many of the genre’s cliches, it nonetheless ends up slipping into some well-worn and dull dynamics of noble Indians teaching important lessons to their American occupiers. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 25, 2018
With lesser performances, its rangy story could have easily gotten lost in its own histrionics. As it is, though, they elevate Cooper's script, helping to make Hostiles better than it might otherwise have been. Read full review
More From This Movie

65 Critic Reviews

7.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL