Night Moves
| Release Date: May 30, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 5, 2014
It’s a richly engrossing drama, so long as you understand that it’s aiming for the head, not the gut. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 30, 2014
Night Moves may have a soft, almost dreamy feel, but at the core it’s crucially hard-headed. In its own quiet way, in how it pulls together our utopian ideals and home-grown fears, it’s the zeitgeist movie of the moment. Read full review
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 16, 2013
Eisenberg does an enormous amount with what he has, proving to be sinister and vulnerable virtually within the same breath, and expertly putting across the torment he’s going through. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 12, 2014
This is a quietly gripping gem. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 30, 2014
Night Moves eschews traditional tension-building through plot twists and betrayals to focus on its characters, as Reichardt uses her increasingly impressive sense of composition and intuitive pacing to slow burn the audience into a state of anxiety instead of manipulatively pushing them there. Read full review
83
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 5, 2014
All three leads give effective, low-key performances. (I don’t remember a single character raising a voice.) Their acting fits the tone of this movie and all the ones Reichardt directs: Her camera moves slowly, and she accumulates tension by showing detail after detail. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 16, 2013
No stranger to crafting excessive anticipation, Reichardt has funneled that skill into thriller clothing. However, like all of her output, nothing is as simple as it looks. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerAug 25, 2014
Gripping, smart and well-tooled, this greenies-on-a-mission movie gives terrific build-up and a riveting central set-piece, with only a slight dip at the end. If she is looking for another genre to subvert, a Reichardt superhero movie would be a sight to behold. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 26, 2014
Night Moves is an unexpected pleasure, offering more than what we expect and taking its time to deliver. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensMay 31, 2014
A slow-burning suspense thriller about a trio of eco-terrorists conspiring to blow up a dam, it’s directed by Reichardt with the concision and elegance of a chess master. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 31, 2014
The influence of early Alfred Hitchcock is all over this movie, translated in unusual and original fashion. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 29, 2014
What happens when a seemingly righteous operation goes wrong and anxiety threatens to overtake ideals? It is the question Night Moves asks and answers in chilling ways. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasMay 28, 2014
Night Moves is a film of deliberate, gnawing intensity and focus, built around a Jesse Eisenberg performance that doesn’t give much away, at least not easily. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 27, 2014
That patience of Reichardt's, and her dedication to showing us exclusively the things that we must see, makes the scenes of preparation — boat parking, fertilizer buying — hypnotic and suspenseful and practical all at once. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 26, 2014
What happens at the dam, filmed at night, with only shimmering light, is the most nerve-racking sequence in recent movies. Reichardt, despite the film’s absences, has achieved an impressive control over the medium. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 16, 2013
After a terrific first hour that crescendos in an extended sequence of quiet yet potent white-knuckle suspense, the film loses some traction in the more challengingly paced second half. But it remains an engrossing reflection on radical violence and its fallout. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 16, 2013
Kelly Reichardt blends her lucid observational approach with a topical-thriller format to engrossing effect in Night Moves. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 16, 2013
This director, in the past, has shown herself to be an ace with the teasing, hanging ending and Night Moves saves the best for last. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 16, 2013
This is mesmerically assured and tensile film-making, with two complex and plausible performances at its core, and the shin-stinging kick of a Chaucerian moral fable. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 4, 2014
Night Moves doesn’t give us much reason to like or empathize with its protagonists, but neither does it discount their activism. In this way, the film spurs contemplation. If it’s food for thought you’re looking for, you won’t go hungry with Night Moves. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 5, 2014
Though at times it threatens to become too generic to be original, or too original to be generic, it retains enough indirection to frustrate those looking for thrills and to engage those willing to be challenged. And by the time the bottom drops out in a characteristically enigmatic ending, Night Moves distinguishes itself as a genuine Reichardt movie. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJun 5, 2014
The movie's centerpiece and peak is the operation itself, which Reichardt depicts with the pulse-pounding patience of a classic heist sequence like that in "Rififi." Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 5, 2014
Don’t expect Hitchcock or De Palma here — Reichardt is much too low-key and modest for such crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics — but one long, sustained shot near the end seems to suggest that people who are convinced they are doing the right thing are capable of great evil. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 29, 2014
Night Moves is a thoughtful, clear-eyed and provocative film that raises thorny questions but doesn't offer easy answers. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 28, 2014
There’s a certain muddled ambivalence to the movie; one gets the impression that Reichardt is more interested in these people than their ideas, but she never quite cracks Josh, who’s much more impenetrably aloof than the beleaguered travelers of "Meek’s Cutoff", her masterpiece. Night Moves is a portrait of outsiders that leaves its audience on the outside. Read full review
75
ObserverMatthew KasselMay 28, 2014
You will take pleasure in the performances of three top-notch actors — Dakota Fanning, who has matured into a fine young film star, Jesse Eisenberg, frighteningly brooding, and the always excellent Peter Sarsgaard. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 21, 2014
While the first hour is evocative and suspenseful, the second doesn’t quite muster the depths of paranoia and doom you’re led to expect. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoApr 22, 2014
Like Michael Cera's two recent films with Sebastian Silva, Night Moves reveals the dark core contained within an actor's nice-guy neuroticism. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 31, 2014
The movie is a cunning piece of storytelling, but it’s thin. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 29, 2014
Some of the climactic turns seem to follow the kind of narrative rules that this film, and this filmmaker, have otherwise defied. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithMay 28, 2014
The second half, though, is chilling, as the trio’s actions come into sharp, painful focus. Too bad Reichardt has no ending. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 27, 2014
Reichardt hangs her film on Eisenberg, who subtly suggests a loner whose primary gift for the cause is he whole in his soul where a longing or human contact should be. It’s a terrific performance and it holds the movie together even as Night Moves stumbles toward its foregone, and rather poorly handled, conclusion. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 29, 2014
So be forewarned: What admirers will consider measured may read, to the unimpressed, as merely slow-moving. Read full review
60
Time OutTom HuddlestonMay 27, 2014
As a procedural study, Night Moves is undeniably effective: The buildup is slow, painstaking and intense, the fallout inevitable but still shocking...But the soul is somehow missing. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 5, 2014
Night Moves, which shows her at her best and worst, also shows two roads, right and wrong, that Reichardt can choose to pursue. As someone who likes this filmmaker even when I don't like her movies, I hope she takes the harder road. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 29, 2014
The story is a shallow-draft bark with flat characters on board: Josh, in particular, is de-energized to the point of entropy. Night Moves suffers from a lack of mystery and a deficit of motion. Read full review
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