Profile
Focus Features | Release Date: May 14, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
8
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistJoe Blessing
The relationship between “Melody” and “Bilel” (also an assumed name) shows the slippery nature of performed online identities, the leveraging of personal grievances into political/terrorist action, and how the immense scale of social media can essentially collectivize and weaponize alienation and anger from around the world into real world terror. Read full review
83
The Film StageOrla SmithMay 11, 2021
While the gloss of studio thrillers allow enough distance that we can sit back and be entertained by what’s on screen, Profile’s desktop setting makes Amy’s situation all the more immediate, because it feels so authentic. The film is proof that ScreenLife isn’t just a gimmick, but a cinematic tool we ought to be taking seriously. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineMary Beth McAndrewsMay 13, 2021
Once again, Bekmambetov has delved into new possibilities of digital filmmaking, capturing the complexities and anxieties that have become inextricably linked to our reliance on technology. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaMay 13, 2021
Profile works on several levels — as a cinematic feat, dual character study, gripping thriller … and as a cautionary tale. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy Ide
The story is told entirely on a computer screen, through skype, social media and editing programs. And despite the restrictions of this device, the film crackles with tension. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 13, 2021
No matter how one views it, however, it’s worth seeing for the story it tells, the tension it generates, and the glimpse of potential it offers for future productions employing this technique. Read full review
75
TheWrapCarlos AguilarMay 11, 2021
As much as Bekmambetov is able to maintain a sense of impending doom, the revelations are predictable, even if the means through which we learn them are clever. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
Even at its most absurd, the movie is chilled by an ominous and ever-present feeling that the world has become smaller than we ever thought possible, and that real nightmares are waiting for us on the other side of every window. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy Lodge
Bekmambetov’s cumulatively hysterical film begins as a study of terror before lurching into something closer to horror. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMay 12, 2021
Profile is one big gimmick, but the gimmickiness, you might say, is that in a very real sense it’s shot entirely on location. Is it a great movie? No, but it’s something rare in any medium, film or otherwise: a work in which form really is content. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Profile is a pretty conventional thriller with pretty conventional stereotypes. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 23, 2021
The energy in Timur Bekmambetov’s latest thriller — he did “Night Watch,””Wanted,” the “Ben Hur” remake, and produced the similar online thriller “Unfriended” — dissapates almost by default after that heady first act. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 15, 2021
If Profile has value, it’s not as a tale of terrorist recruitment or of amorous delusion, but of how power works in the extremely online world. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 12, 2021
Despite an intriguing premise, it ultimately falls apart as the gimmick wears thin and the plot veers into ludicrous territory, with the heroine making a series of increasingly rash and idiotic decisions. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerMay 11, 2021
No matter where he goes, even when he’s working in a subgenre he helped build, Bekmambetov loses himself in the pixels. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansAug 9, 2021
The ratcheting tension is sadly punctured by unintentionally hilarious scenes of ambitious “research” by journalist Amy (Valene Kane), mostly involving frantic Googling and YouTube tutorials on “how to look younger”. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneJessica KiangMay 13, 2021
Like any weird internet rabbit hole you might fall down when you know you should be reading a book or brewing kombucha or going to sleep, this thriller is almost annoyingly slick and moreish. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid Rooney
In terms of sustaining a narrative using only FaceTime, Skype, Facebook, video downloads and various other web pages and social media platforms, Profile is quite impressive up to a point. In terms of coherent plotting and plausibility, not so much. That means that as the storytelling falls apart, the online framework devolves into a labored tech gimmick, and a visually tiresome one at that. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineMark HansonMay 11, 2021
Timur Bekmambetov’s Screenlife film is more fluff piece than hard-hitting news story. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 11, 2021
Still, there’s something about Screenlife that’s not just gimmicky — like the found-footage craze that preceded it — but numbing. All this technological terrorism should be terrifying, but it mostly just feels like eyestrain. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleMay 13, 2021
Those obsessed with first-person and screenlife films may want to explore Profile from a strictly technical standpoint, and they are welcome to do so. Everyone else can avoid it entirely. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 14, 2021
In Profile, the images mix real documentary footage with fictional social media and news organization posts. And meaning is elemental—a simplistic rush meant to induce viewer panic. While also being incredibly on-the-nose. Read full review
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