Mute
Netflix | Release Date: February 23, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
15
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
58
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 23, 2018
Mute is ludicrous, but within the confines of its referential logic, also pretty cool. Read full review
56
Paste MagazineJim VorelFeb 23, 2018
The criticism is less that Mute doesn’t know what it wants to be, and more that it seems to emphatically decide what it wants to be every few minutes, only to then change its mind once more. And every time it does so, it’s the audience that is being left behind. Read full review
55
IGNDavid GriffinFeb 23, 2018
Mute tries to tell a transformative sci-fi story but struggles to find its footing with a less than stellar hero. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 7, 2018
Mute is pretty meh but gets points for randomness. Read full review
50
UproxxAmy NicholsonFeb 23, 2018
It manages to be both bizarre and boring. While I admire Jones’ inventive details...the film simply looks cheap. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartFeb 23, 2018
Despite a terrific cast and a sexy noir look to rival the two “Blade Runner” films, Jones (son of David Bowie) delivers a bit of a letdown. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 23, 2018
The one thing Mute has going for it is Jones’ vividly imaginative sense of world-building. Like Ridley Scott with "Blade Runner," he fills every corner of the screen with something cool to look at. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 23, 2018
What is Jones trying to say with Mute? One would hardly guess this over-congested generic exercise came from the same mind as the elegant, almost minimalistic “Moon,” which made far better use of all that went unsaid. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKevin CrustFeb 23, 2018
The references, conscious and not, serve as constant reminders to the audience of other, better, movies, rendering Mute more atonal hodgepodge than carefully orchestrated pastiche. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenFeb 23, 2018
The handsomely downbeat atmospherics overwhelm its themes of love, parenthood, crime and punishment. The narrative doesn't quite coalesce, and except for a few late-in-the-proceedings moments, it doesn't deliver the grim, indelible shivers of the best noir. Read full review
50
The Film StageBrian RoanFeb 23, 2018
Mute is one of those strange oddities in which every single aspect of the plot feels purposefully cultivated for some grand thematic or existential purpose, yet none of it coheres into something that feels particularly meaningful or revelatory. Read full review
42
The PlaylistAndrew CrumpFeb 23, 2018
Mute is in desperate need of a firmer hand. Once upon a time, that hand might have been Jones’. Now he’s invisible in his own pastiche. Read full review
40
EmpireDan JolinFeb 26, 2018
Fans of Moon and Source Code be warned: Mute is sadly, almost tragically, not worth the wait. Read full review
40
CineVueZoe MargolisFeb 24, 2018
Jones has great talent as a director, but even with good performances by the cast, Mute is let down by a weak and bland script. Read full review
40
The TelegraphEd CummingFeb 23, 2018
Jones conjured intimacy on the surface of the moon, but in the crowded streets of futuristic Berlin, there’s no real feeling. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 27, 2018
If this is what the excruciating finished film looks like, what manner of dreck must Mr. Bowie’s son have left on the cutting room floor? Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 23, 2018
Sadly, Jones’ passion has not made it to the screen in a way that’s likely to make viewers feel the same excitement he had about the project so many years ago. Read full review
30
SlateSam AdamsFeb 23, 2018
Duncan Jones must have believed there was an incredible movie in his head. If there was, it’s still in there. Read full review
25
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerFeb 23, 2018
Mute has gobs of style to burn, but it’s virtually the textbook definition of sound and fury signifying nothing. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 23, 2018
Mute is so slow and arbitrarily over-plotted that it's difficult to believe that Jones also directed the spry and enjoyable Moon and Source Code. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFeb 23, 2018
The film ignores all the potential commentary and conflict in its pulpy, hyperbolic premise (tradition technology, urban contradictions, etc.), offering only trivialities, superficialities, and contempt. It has as little to say as its protagonist. Possibly less, even Read full review
20
TheWrapRobert AbeleFeb 23, 2018
It’s legitimately difficult, from scene to scene, to determine what exactly about the increasingly lurid and far-fetched “Mute” made it necessary to be told. Read full review
20
The GuardianCharles BramescoFeb 23, 2018
Watching Jones passively bob in the deep end of his imagination, a viewer longs for the compulsory baseline competence of the big studios – anything but the blandness masquerading as future cult bait. Read full review
15
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 23, 2018
Mute is a slog, and a depressing one; as Netflix sci-fi goes, it’s not as abjectly inept as The Cloverfield Paradox, but it’s perhaps even more disappointing given the talented filmmaker involved. Read full review
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