Okja
Netflix | Release Date: June 28, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
6
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 27, 2017
The picture, which never stops moving, is dense with information and feeling. Barbs of satire pop up and are washed away on streams of strong emotion. It’s all marvelously preposterous and yet, at the same time, something important is at stake. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenJun 27, 2017
With his latest work, Bong has created a heroine for our times, an indelible movie creature, a story that balances heart and head and a movie that engages with the boundaries of technology both on-screen and off. Read full review
100
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 22, 2017
Not only is Mija’s mission genuinely involving, but Bong and his co-writer, the author Jon Ronson, also get great comic mileage out of satirizing the Mirando corporation, rendering it a hilarious amalgamation of all of capitalism’s evils, as well as the A.L.F. and their oxymoronic credo of non-violent terrorism. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 19, 2017
This is a gorgeously realized popcorn movie of the most satisfying, comforting, restorative kind: full as its heart is, it has a lot on its mind, yet you’d also quite like to curl up on its belly and doze in the sun. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 19, 2017
The pure energy and likability of this film make it such a pleasure. Read full review
90
SalonMax CeaJun 27, 2017
In Okja, Joon Ho takes animal cruelty and corporate capitalism to slaughter. And yet, he doesn’t preach or pander. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJun 29, 2017
A work of melancholy enchantment, by turns sweet, funny, scary, sad, and—in the manner of all good science fiction movies—thought-provoking. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 29, 2017
Despite being broadly classified as a “monster movie” and featuring sequences that are as wildly bizarre as any Monty Python skit, Okja has serious messages about consumerism, ecology, and food production. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 28, 2017
No one, but no one, makes movies like Bong, a South Korean master who combines baroque concepts, epic visuals, international casts, and a sense of humor that can make you laugh out loud in the middle of the darkest doings. Read full review
83
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJun 30, 2017
It’s not the savage darkness of Okja that lingers most after it ends, or even the political allusions. It’s the story of Mija and Okja, trying to make sense of a frightening world where good people and animals alike die each day, and the only thing that can usually prevent this from happening is more money. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMay 19, 2017
As with Snowpiercer, this is a story almost too eager to fire in multiple directions, sometimes with messy results, veering from broad satire to softer exchanges with little regard for finding balance between the two. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 3, 2017
Okja is a fairy tale of sorts, though too foulmouthed for children; it nips from pastoral bliss to a terrorist pig-napping by the Animal Liberation Front; and it takes the eco-menace from Bong’s sublime “The Host” (2006) and replays the fright as farce, with a spirited turn from Tilda Swinton, as the company boss, and, I’m afraid, a barely watchable one from Jake Gyllenhaal, as a drunk TV presenter. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentJun 19, 2017
A pot-bellied fable unlike anything else you’ll see this year. Not since Babe has an adorable porker inspired such peculiar joy or unexpected heartache. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMay 23, 2017
Okja isn’t perfect; it falls down when the absurd and the serious ricochet back and forth between scenes, making it hard to track with the film’s tone. But it’s easily forgivable; this is a big, ambitious movie, and when it works, it is ridiculously fun. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaMay 19, 2017
The film is packed with so many strange gems of moments, and while a few feel like Bong losing the plot (specifically any time Okja decides to loosen her bowels) it always snaps back together. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 19, 2017
Okja is exuberant and wild filmmaking. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartJun 29, 2017
Bong Joon-ho directed one of the best dystopian thrillers in recent years — 2013’s “Snowpiercer” — and one of the finest monster movies ever, 2006’s “The Host.” You’ll find elements of both in his chilling, subversive new Netflix film, Okja, about a girl named Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) and her enormous pet superpig. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 29, 2017
Yes, this far-out fable is too much in every department. But it is also the work of a visual storyteller drunk on the power of movies to stir things up ... and maybe even to heal. It's a bumpy ride, for sure, but hold on. Okja is worth it. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 27, 2017
Okja in it. It’s the antithesis of cookie-cutter, made-by-committee filmmaking. Prepare to be amazed, grossed out, provoked, punchdrunk, and tickled. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 26, 2017
If Bong, the South Korean writer-director behind The Host, Memories Of Murder, and Snowpiercer, never squares the film’s satirical means with its sentimental ends, he at least throws the weight of his considerable filmmaking talent behind both. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 26, 2017
The greatly gifted and consistently eccentric writer-director Bong Joon Ho’s Okja is an uneven but never complacent mix of fantastic fairy tale; social satire; heavy-handed commentary on corporate greed and our consumer-crazed culture, and bizarro action film. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 22, 2017
If this is the film that is destined to divide the movie business, it’s as weird and imperfect a choice as could possibly be. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoJun 26, 2017
Okja is a wild, tender tale of wonderment and friendship, delightful but still with smacks of vile consumerism darkness. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 19, 2017
Downright charming at times and irrepressibly gonzo at others, Okja hews to an all-too-familiar trajectory. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonMay 19, 2017
Like the cumbersome hybrid animal at its heart, this beast is no beauty. But it is a technically impressive and boldly original statement. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 30, 2017
A nutty, awkward, oddly impassioned parable that mashes together so many different genres that calling it “unclassifiable” doesn’t really explain very much. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 27, 2017
Though ultimately gratifying, the ambitious Okja struggles throughout with its pinballing tonal structure, beginning as a family-friendly adventure then shifting to screwball farce and later to an emotional drama involving animal cruelty and slaughterhouse horror. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 26, 2017
In Okja, a transporting protest fantasy becomes another shrill dust-up in the waging of the culture wars. Read full review
61
Paste MagazineTim GriersonMay 25, 2017
To the end, Okja is as endearing, chaotic and awkward as its title creature. Sometimes, the movie requires the same loving embrace Mija provides for Okja—even though, unlike that portly pig, Okja often lets you down. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensJun 29, 2017
If you see Okja, and I hope you do, stay for the final credits. It’s not often that a stinger scene pops up at the end of a movie, not to pre-sell the inevitable sequel, but to leave you with something to think, wonder, and worry about. Read full review
60
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMay 23, 2017
There’s a lot to chew on here, but in the end, I wish Okja simply worked better as a movie. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 19, 2017
The creature effects are charming.... But the pig-chasing antics and cartoonish corporate nastiness that dominate much of the film become seriously grating. Read full review
60
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 19, 2017
Okja is fun, if sometimes over-egged, as an adventure romp, but flounders in overstatement when it comes to satirical intent. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 19, 2017
Okja is plenty of fun, and smart around the edges, but the girl-and-her-pig stuff can drag, and it feels like it’s pressing for resonance more than properly achieving it. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 27, 2017
It’s alternately wacky and bleak, and despite stunning Korean scenery and a passable chase or two, it feels small-screen. It’s also obvious, with an ending you can guess in the first ten minutes. Read full review
30
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 22, 2017
Okja takes the worst impulses of Walt Disney, Wes Anderson, Tim Burton and Michael Moore and rolls them into one movie. Read full review
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