Mud
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 26, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 26, 2013
Watching Mud unfold, one suspects that the Arkansas-reared Nichols remembers exactly what it was like to be a boy of the Southern wilds. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 25, 2013
One of the most creatively rich and emotionally rewarding movies to come along this year. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 25, 2013
Jeff Nichols's third feature traffics unerringly in truth, delicious surprise, unadorned beauty and unforced wisdom. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 25, 2013
Mud is steeped in a sense of place, and the people inhabiting it. Southern. Superstitious. Suspenseful. Sublime. Read full review
100
Film.comWilliam GossFeb 26, 2013
That Nichols is able to orchestrate this entire journey with steady tension and lyrical imagery is a testament to his storytelling capabilities. Read full review
90
TimeMary PolsApr 29, 2013
Glorious vision of youth and truth, love and loss, your name is Mud. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 25, 2013
With American independent film teeming with so many shaky-cam snarksters, what an electric riposte to the status quo is Nichols, whose films are classically constructed and deadly serious. In his short but potent career, he’s mastered a wide-vistaed eye for the epic and the elemental. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonApr 26, 2013
A provocative mood piece. Nichols, who had an art-house hit in 2011 with “Take Shelter,” has a gift for creating characters of unusual depth, and for eliciting performances of emotional resonance. With Mud, he seems to be edging closer to the mainstream, but his skills are as sharp as ever. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickApr 25, 2013
Mud runs over two hours, climaxing with a shootout that belongs in a different movie. It’s a rare misstep in an art-house movie that will pull mainstream audiences along as inexorably as the Mississippi River. Go see it. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 25, 2013
This is where a filmmaker’s taste and reflexive sense of balance makes all the difference. Southern culture may be on the skids in Mud, but Nichols’s sensitive portrayal is gratifyingly on the level. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 25, 2013
In the hands of Nichols, Mud emerges as a thing of bruised beauty. There's magic in it. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 24, 2013
There's something old-fashioned about Mud, but if you allow yourself to settle into its leisurely pace, it will reward you. If he were alive today, Mark Twain would approve. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinMay 5, 2013
A bold, intelligent, 21st century take on Mark Twain — with added occult tendencies. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 25, 2013
Mr. Nichols’s screenplay is perhaps a little too heavily plotted, especially toward the end, when everything comes together neatly and noisily, but he more than compensates with graceful rhythm, an unfussy eye for natural beauty and a sure sense of character and place. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 25, 2013
The story is intriguing enough to make Mud a good movie. Led by Sheridan and McConaughey, the performances make it something more. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 26, 2013
Mud poses as a mere adolescent adventure tale but explores a rich vein of grown-up concerns, exploring codes of honor, love and family too solid to be shaken by modernizing forces. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanMay 17, 2013
So yes, Mud is messy, but it’s also rich and earthy in a way that suggests a filmmaker who is deeply immersed in his story, his characters and his surroundings. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 25, 2013
Endearing and believable, the two actors playing Ellis and Neckbone are pitch-perfect. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 25, 2013
The spirits of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are alive and well in the Southern-fried coming-of-age tale Mud. It's got all the ingredients. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 25, 2013
You come away from Mud fondly remembering those two boys, especially Ellis, who has taken his first steps toward adulthood and discovers it suits him just fine. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloApr 24, 2013
Mud unfortunately begins to develop a sour aftertaste in the handful of minor subplots. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 24, 2013
Reese Witherspoon's unglamorous, understated supporting work recalls the kinds of films she made before becoming a movie star. Other recognizable faces include Sam Shepard, Joe Don Baker, Michael Shannon, and Sarah Paulson. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneApr 23, 2013
The film ultimately succeeds thanks to small details, from its deep-fried lingo and the swampy texture of its location photography to its uniformly expert cast. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 22, 2013
It doesn’t trivialize Mud to label it Tennessee Williams lite — at least in its romantic notions. Nichols gets good performances out of one and all, but lets himself get so caught up in his sense of place that this potboiler hangs around more than a few minutes after that pot has come to a boil. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 22, 2013
It’s hard to believe Nichols thinks he can get away with all this and harder still to believe he does. It’s the quality of the attention that he brings — his focus — that makes his work so engrossing. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFeb 26, 2013
Jeff Nichols’ much-anticipated follow-up to his breakthrough second feature Take Shelter feels less adventurous and unsettling but remains a well carpentered piece of work marked by some fine performances and resilient thematic fiber. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 25, 2013
The most striking aspect of Mud is the air of myth and tall-tale telling that hovers lightly over the settings and characters. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonGuy LodgeMay 14, 2013
It’s a broader, starrier project than either of Nichols’s previous films, and he handles the transition to the major league with relative confidence. Read full review
60
The TelegraphDavid GrittenApr 29, 2013
It’s a lovely, coherent piece of storytelling, with a unique sense of place. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherApr 26, 2013
More accessible than "Take Shelter" but not as powerful, Mud boasts stunning photography, a mesmerising lead and a strong evocation of Americana. McConaughey’s gold run continues… Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 23, 2013
Despite the best efforts of a cast that mixes unstudied newbies such as The Tree of Life’s Sheridan with Hollywood prima donnas like Reese Witherspoon (a starlet-slumming-it distraction as Mud's dim-bulb inamorata), there’s an overall clunkiness that Nichols is unable to overcome. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 23, 2013
It's too bad...that a movie so attuned to natural currents in the end gets caught up in Hollywood's impossible ones. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 26, 2013
Mud is an engaging and good-looking picture with two bright leading performances from Sheridan and Lofland. Read full review
50
The PlaylistSimon AbramsFeb 26, 2013
Mud is as unmoving as it is because it doesn’t aspire to be anything other than a competent anti-fairy tale in which the paint-by-number morals are enforced by equally obvious main protagonists. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 25, 2013
Stripped of his former pretty-boy image, the Texas-born actor is snarly and gnarled, and understands what Nichols is aiming for. That’s crucial, as Mud needs something to stick to. Read full review
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