Inside
Focus Features | Release Date: March 17, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ColliderMarco Vito OddoFeb 21, 2023
Everything is glued together by another Dafoe performance that proves he’s one of the greatest actors of all time, especially when given enough room to tap into the lunacy of his characters. In short, Katsoupis managed to craft a crowd pleaser that still has something interesting to say. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTomris LafflyMar 14, 2023
Still, the greatest asset of the picture is Dafoe’s finesse in a part that’s both physically demanding and fiendishly fun to witness. It’s like someone dropped him in the middle of an antique shop with a baseball bat and said, “Go to town!” And that he does. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 16, 2023
Katsoupis poses these probing and provocative questions about humanity but doesn’t offer any clear answers or messages. Rather, he lets his muse, Dafoe, simply inhabit this harrowing journey with his strange magnetism and sense of timelessness, in a performance that is simultaneously primitive and transcendent. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredCharlotte SimmonsMar 15, 2023
Though it's no easy task to connect and absorb everything it throws at you, Inside is a captivating thematic feast anchored by the ever-masterful Willem Dafoe. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 17, 2023
Inside is essentially a one-man extravaganza for Dafoe, and he shoulders its complexities ably, with zero vanity. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeFeb 21, 2023
Inside is set up as a psychological thriller/escape movie, but evolves into something rather more intriguing: a philosophical interrogation of the value of art to a dying man. Read full review
67
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossFeb 21, 2023
The wretched allure of this process makes “Inside” worth the investment even when Katsoupis proves unable to resist the charming hands of cliché, bloating the script to serve the idea of an unconventional heist movie, when in his hands lie a much more interesting proposition. Read full review
65
TheWrapRobert AbeleFeb 21, 2023
As Katsoupis’s exhibitionist experiment teeters between prickly psychological suspense and yawing pretension, it’s always Dafoe — perhaps channeling the audacious immersion of his roots in Wooster Group theater — who mesmerizingly portrays this “Inside” job as if his life and art counted on it. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 14, 2023
Inside is a one-man show. Its rewards — such as they are, in this bleakly depressing thought exercise — will depend entirely on your appreciation of its star. Is it entertaining? Nemo has only art for company. We at least have Willem Dafoe. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 14, 2023
How you feel about the psychological thriller Insider may depend on how you feel about spending the better part of two hours staring nonstop at Willem Dafoe. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 14, 2023
Dafoe is always a wonder to watch. But the picture needed more drama, maybe a touch of humor about its “Martian” styled “work the problem” exercise, and more of a sense of self-awareness in our thief who is trapped “inside” a just deserts parable of his own creation. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiFeb 22, 2023
Whether or not Vasilis Katsoupis’s film achieves escape velocity from genre limitations though overt sociopolitical commentary is questionable. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 20, 2023
Here is an art-house flick, cunningly coated in the gleam of a high-tech thriller. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonMar 16, 2023
It’s disruptive, and then cathartic, to watch Dafoe’s primal performance dominate this museum/mausoleum and force us to side with humanity. He’s perfectly cast in a part that calls for quietly whirring intelligence. Read full review
60
Screen RantRachel LaBonteMar 14, 2023
This movie won't be for everyone, but Dafoe enthusiasts will have to check out his go-for-broke depiction of a man at his wits' end. It keeps the movie exciting even when the pacing falters. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 13, 2023
Without an actor like Dafoe at its center (and margins and everywhere else), it would be unwatchable torture. With him, it’s more like watchable torture, easier to admire than enjoy. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 21, 2023
It is a strange, enclosed experience: Dafoe’s mastery of the screen keeps it meaningful. Read full review
59
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 7, 2023
Dafoe is captivating as always, but not even his slinking, slippery presence can save the film from turning into a rather torturous endurance test. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 21, 2023
It’s a natty-enough twist on the survivor story — what if you were stuck inside, not outside? — and one bolstered by the inherent watchability of star Willem Dafoe, one of the few performers absolutely up to the task of this particular feature. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 17, 2023
As a showcase for the inimitable Dafoe it has its minor freaky-deaky pleasures. Ultimately, though, it goes nowhere—literally and figuratively. Read full review
50
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaMar 23, 2023
Despite a stellar performance from Willem Dafoe as a contemplative art thief, Inside lacks the smarts and visual panache to make good use of its single location. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMar 17, 2023
The film has its moments, and Dafoe certainly gives it his all, but there's a hollowness that ends up rendering the whole thing fairly forgettable—the cinematic equivalent of a piece of art you buy only because it goes well with the couch. Read full review
50
VarietyMurtada ElfadlMar 17, 2023
Inside has an intriguing premise and an actor who makes whatever’s thrown at him intriguingly watchable. What it lacks is sufficient sense of who this character is, and a resonant enough narrative to justify being locked up together. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 21, 2023
Even the formidable Dafoe at his most intense ultimately can’t stop Inside from succumbing to its own narrowness, devolving into a self-reflexive portrait of soul-sucking isolation. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerMar 14, 2023
Inside‘s concept holds creative possibility, yes, but without much, if any, applied, it’s just a guy stuck in an apartment for 105 minutes, going through various stages of disbelief, acceptance, mania, determination and setback as days, weeks and months go by, and desperation becomes more of a necessity than a last resort. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 17, 2023
The results are dispiritingly pleasureless, as though to fully embrace the idea of a penthouse prison would get in the way of the movie’s nebulous ideas about art. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 16, 2023
Even an Oscar-nominated GOAT can’t escape something that seems so perfectly put together on the outside and is so flawed, easily trashed, and barely held together on the inside. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleAlejandra MartinezMar 16, 2023
Inside has all the surface trappings of an arthouse hit, but don’t look too closely – there isn’t much there. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMar 20, 2023
A lumbering bore called Inside is a crucially wooden and mechanical vehicle for the peculiar talents of Willem Dafoe that amounts to nothing more than nearly two hours of pretentious bilge. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 14, 2023
Watching Inside is like being stuck inside a house, unable to escape. No, it’s worse than that. It’s like being stuck inside a house, unable to escape, and Willem Dafoe is there with you. Read full review
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