Kin
Lionsgate | Release Date: August 31, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
9
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
IndieWireJude DryAug 31, 2018
There are plenty of plot devices to keep the audience on its toes, and Reynor is the epitome of a 21st century lovable antihero, so fashionable these days. He’s hard and grizzled when needed, but soft and playful as well. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 29, 2018
So, yeah, Kin is a bit of a biker movie, too. More important, it’s also a family drama. In their first-time feature-directing effort, twin brothers Jonathan and Josh Baker — speaking of kin — turn Cain and Abel inside out and upside down. Why be east of Eden when you end up that far west of Motown? Read full review
51
IGNWilliam BibbianiAug 28, 2018
All the genre elements play like an afterthought, and that's frustrating because the rest of the movie isn't quite spry enough to stay interesting without action, adventure, or at least little more weirdness. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshAug 30, 2018
It's just a devastatingly sad and terrible story about two brothers who make bad choices, suffer the consequences and lose the last shreds of family they have left. No amount of 11th hour twists, reveals or bigger ideas can shake that inescapable feeling of dread and sorrow. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveyAug 30, 2018
The results are, in artistic terms, a modest success. In commercial terms, it’s a dicier prospect — viewers expecting the kind of bigger-budget spectacle that typically ensues when a screen teenager stumbles into sci-fi situations may be befuddled by what’s primarily a medium-scaled road trip drama with thriller elements … and a very special ray gun. Read full review
50
Washington PostJane HorwitzAug 30, 2018
Cinematographer Larkin Seiple’s fine camera work and Eli’s mystery weapon just don’t keep the thunking, derivative script afloat. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 30, 2018
Kin positions itself as a B-movie cobbled together from sci-fi favorites of the past, and so we grant the movie wide latitude to be goofy. It's meant to be out there. Even by those lax standards, though, Kin tries the patience. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 29, 2018
This mash-up of family drama and science fiction is a pleasant but unconvincing adventure with strong adolescent appeal and music by Mogwai. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenAug 28, 2018
Newcomer Myles Truitt inhabits the role with an earthbound soulfulness — what you might call the opposite of heroic flash — and even when the film’s progress feels more mechanical than organic, he’s easy to root for. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerAug 28, 2018
It’s a simple idea, to take this working-class family and introduce what amounts to a high-tech ray gun, but the hook is so effective that it buys Kin a fair amount of time before the story turns from scrappy to stupid. Read full review
45
TheWrapTodd GilchristAug 28, 2018
It never feels complete or thought through enough, either as a story or more crucially, an emotional experience — which is exactly what audiences would need in order to want to see more. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 30, 2018
At times dull and plodding and at other times cartoonishly silly, Kin rarely works and, when it does, it’s often for the wrong reasons. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiAug 30, 2018
A disjointed and at times off-putting mess that veers wildly and unconvincingly between a road movie, a family drama, a violent crime film and an offbeat sci-fi thriller before arriving at a finale so loopy that even if I spoiled it here and now, many of you would just assume that I was kidding. Read full review
38
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 30, 2018
For a movie centered on brotherhood, it’s remarkably empty of any sense of kinship. Read full review
30
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 28, 2018
Kin never feels like more than uninspired borrowings from other, better genre films; it’s a story about family without any heart. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 29, 2018
Kin is not a snoozer, at least, and the Baker brothers are certainly not untalented, but their genre-mashing experiment doesn’t work on any emotional level. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineJake ColeAug 29, 2018
Jonathan and Josh Baker's Kin, a feature that comprises little more than an extended introduction to its characters, resembles a TV pilot that's been released into theaters as a standalone property. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 28, 2018
I hated this clunker long before the third act “twists” that are supposed to make it better, make it make sense and give us hope that this is a future franchise. Read full review
10
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 30, 2018
Kin is insufferable, self-seriously combining shut-in nerdiness with wannabe macho pyrotechnics. It’s Bro Cinema in all the worst imaginable senses of the term. Read full review
0
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyAug 28, 2018
Kin is a movie about a child with an all-powerful firearm that makes him feel important and special and powerful. On a one-to-ten scale of moral fecklessness, this ranks about a thousand. Read full review
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