Montana Story
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: May 13, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chandler LevackSep 13, 2021
Thanks to the specificity of Richardson’s performance in particular and Giles Nuttgen’s gorgeous cinematography (the movie is shot on 35 mm), Montana Story evokes a grandiose style of American frontier filmmaking, somewhere between John Ford and Kelly Reichardt. See it on the largest screen you can find. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyJun 16, 2022
It’s a neo-Western, a sensitively acted, heartfelt and ambitious drama which stumbles when it resembles an illustrated thesis about the legacy of the West. Read full review
83
The Film StageDan MeccaMay 12, 2022
McGehee and Siegel are at the top of their game, building to an emotional and memorable climax. Nothing is too shocking, but nothing happens exactly as expected either. One could look at the premise of this film and convince themselves they’ve seen it before. They’d be wrong. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMark KeizerMay 10, 2022
This is a deeply felt work anchored by two earthy performances that stay small-scaled no matter how melodramatic the slowly revealed secrets become. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 18, 2022
Montana Story is a personal film, a small story told under the Big Sky. Those skies can make any story feel epic in scope — they frame tales as mythology in a way. But in Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s film (they wrote and direct), those same skies are so grand and far-reaching they can make you lose your perspective. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarMay 12, 2022
While the events that transpire are minimal, the poignancy of “Montana Story” resides in watching these two strangers, once inseparable, reconnect now as different people but with the same scars. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 17, 2021
Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague are both excellent at conveying everything that remains unsaid between these estranged siblings, eschewing melodramatic flourishes for stoic insights. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 17, 2021
This is a minor-key modern Western whose melancholy probe into the bruising past gives way, in a quietly satisfying conclusion, to the hope of reconciliation, even healing. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleMay 25, 2022
There are a handful of filmmakers – Wind River director Taylor Sheridan comes to mind – who carry the torch of the American Western forward into the present. Like Sheridan’s films, Montana Story introduces an element of finality to the American West. Read full review
78
TheWrapLena WilsonMay 13, 2022
Montana Story remains a worthwhile exercise, largely because it puts two stellar actors through a monumental emotional gauntlet, and they pass with flying colors. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 24, 2022
The grandeur of Big Sky Country, captured with majesty and elegance by cinematographer Giles Nuttgens’ lenses, provides the backdrop for an intimate story of tragedy and reconnection that is no less riveting than the terrain where it transpires. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 23, 2022
It moves, makes us care and involves us in the genuine drama of two young people trying to heal themselves. The austere beauty of the locations doesn’t hurt either. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 16, 2022
There are many rewards to be found here, not the least of which is a skill at staging scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends that are entirely dependent upon the subtle interactions of a few actors who live or die on the basis of the words they've been given to speak, and the silences they've been encouraged to inhabit. Read full review
75
IndieWireRobert DanielsSep 17, 2021
Montana Story doesn’t reinvent the Western wheel. Rather it offers tender mercies as a sentimental work that explodes in well-earned fury. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 17, 2022
The interactions between the people may seem small in comparison to the wide-open landscapes and rolling hills. In the hands of everyone involved with this moving drama, however, they echo long and loudly nonetheless. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganMay 16, 2022
An intimate drama about a family disbanded by abuse, Montana Story is superbly acted, but lacks a formidable narrative capable of carrying its protagonists. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 12, 2022
When Montana Story works, you are effortlessly drawn into a world — which allows you to go with the easygoing, realist groove — even as you’re taking stock of the artifice and waiting for the hammer to fall. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgSep 17, 2021
Montana Story is a solid film set on a standard story structure. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 17, 2021
It’s a subtle and poignant performance that makes you eager for Richardson to have an even bigger spotlight in he next endeavor. Read full review
63
Washington PostPat PaduaMay 16, 2022
Although the pacing of the film — written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel (“What Maisie Knew”), from a story co-written with David Spreter — can be as slow as the clouds over Big Sky Country, the flawed young characters grow on you, their troubles gradually becoming as mythic as the landscape that surrounds them. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 12, 2022
It’s largely a two-character drama with two capable actors, though neither Mr. Teague nor Ms. Richardson (who is usually quite good) are given much with which to win our sympathy. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeMay 12, 2022
The film is initially distinguished by its poetic understatement, only for it to eventually succumb to staleness. Read full review
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