Hunger
IFC Films | Release Date: December 5, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A superbly balanced piece of work, addressing the passion of Irish Republican martyr Bobby Sands. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
McQueen has taken the raw materials of filmmaking and committed an act of great art. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleReyhan Harmanci
Artful, beautiful in parts and unbelievably brutal in others, and no less honest for its stagecraft. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Hunger -- the disturbing, provocative, brilliant feature debut from British director Steve McQueen -- does for modern film what Caravaggio did to Renaissance painting. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
An alternately harrowing and poetic take on the fatal 1982 hunger strike of Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands, Hunger is also one of the most impressive feature directing debuts in years. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Hunger is a mesmerizing 96 minutes of cinema, one of the truly extraordinary filmmaking debuts of recent years. It's also an uneasy, unsettling experience and is meant to be. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A disturbingly avid re-creation of the last six weeks in the life and slow, self-imposed wasting of Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The movie is a political remake of "The Passion of the Christ," only more aestheticized: It's rigorous, evocative, and, in spite of its grisly imagery, elegant. It's a triumph--of masochistic literal-mindedness. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
An artistic triumph. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
So what is Hunger? Unexpectedly, a visually ravishing tour of hell and a meditation on freedom that at best is wordlessly profound and at worst interestingly obscure. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Sands' death is shown in a tableaux of increasing bleakness. It is agonizing, yet filmed with a curious painterly purity. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Hunger is daunting and powerful work. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Hunger may be criticized for being willfully arty, or for reducing a complex political situation to a broadly allegorical vision of martyrdom, but it's never less than visually stunning. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Although the film, for the most part, is told from the perspective of the IRA, it does not blithely take its side. Read full review
80
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
While Hunger is a very brutal film, it also taps into human emotions and, in the end, asks what would we be willing to die for or, better, what could we truly not live without? Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Hunger is almost silent, most of its sounds being unintelligible moans and screams. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's a strength of this carefully composed, almost obsessively controlled picture that it has no interest in the conventional biographical focus on a subject. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The fulcrum of this deeply humanist work is an extended two-shot of the strike's leader, Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), as he converses with a priest (Liam Cunningham); the virtuosic sequence encapsulates the whole sorry history of a horrific civil war. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie Felperin
Picture represents a powerful, pertinent but not entirely perfect debut for British visual-artist-turned-feature-helmer Steve McQueen, who demonstrates a painterly touch with composition and real cinematic flair, but who stumbles in film's last furlough with trite symbolism. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The brutality in the film is pervasive and often stomach turningly graphic, but what is perhaps most unnerving is the tact, patience and care with which Mr. McQueen depicts its causes and effects. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
In all, Steve McQueen is a master of fascination rather than of drama--he creates stunning shots rather than an intricate story. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
For those who can tough it out -- and not everyone will -- Hunger is a searing experience. Just don't expect to have much of an appetite when it's over. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
The first-time director's unflinching camera, deliberate pacing and maddeningly long takes just amplify the story's innate harshness and test audience endurance levels. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
An emotionally devastating drama that isn't for the squeamish. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Trite, grim and feebly provocative. Read full review
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