Racer and the Jailbird
Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD) | Release Date: May 4, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 2, 2018
One of the most undersung and most potent pleasures of genre cinema is the excuse it has given us, time and again, to watch attractive people fall in love with each other, and if you’re in a romantic frame of mind, Racer and the Jailbird delivers so wholly on that front that it goes a fair way toward compensating for the film’s deficiencies elsewhere. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 4, 2018
The work by the two leads is consistently committed, not to mention oozing with old fashioned movie-star charisma. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 2, 2018
The whole thing becomes drenched in a kind of downbeat sentimental martyrdom that feels oppressively old-fashioned and moribund. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganMay 2, 2018
An indulgent 130-minute running time and a plot that wildly over-stretches sees Racer ultimately bounce off the rails. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMay 2, 2018
Racer and the Jailbird remains absorbing throughout, thanks primarily to the two leads, who are both almost frighteningly believable as lovers willing to risk everything to stay together. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 2, 2018
Despite Bibi’s need for speed, Racer And The Jailbird sputters more than it guns. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 16, 2018
We expect more racing, more heists, more jail and more heat. “Fidele” loyally never quite clears “lukewarm,” and is awfully slow coming to a boil. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 10, 2018
Racer and the Jailbird, the inelegantly translated title of “Le Fidele,” is a first-rate caper movie. It’s also a pretty good romance. And a boring, suffocating melodrama. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMay 9, 2018
While the story starts fast and furious, it sputters in its second half, not so much running out of gas as just turning into a completely different film which becomes increasingly more convoluted as it becomes less engaging. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 9, 2018
Two good characters and two good performances go into the old poubelle — or, as we say in English, the garbage bin. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 3, 2018
The two leads are sensational, but the movie, drained of its life force and stuffed with confusing plot complications — like a shoehorned-in undercover agent and some mysterious Albanians — never recovers. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMay 2, 2018
Schoenaerts is his usual, intense self, Exarchopoulos has here found her best role since Blue and there’s no denying their chemistry is wild. But their characters become prisoners of the many twists and turns of the narrative instead of rising above it; their personalities aren’t revealed through the story so much as they are constrained by it. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnMay 2, 2018
Racer and the Jailbird speeds along at an engaging clip, but never overcomes the fundamental simplicity of its plot. Read full review
40
CineVueChristopher MachellMay 2, 2018
Racer and the Jailbird is a stylish, often promising film, but sadly one that never coheres into genuine drama. Read full review
38
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMay 9, 2018
Perhaps that is Roskam’s ultimate point: volition and individuality are illusory; only love and death matter. That truth comes through with somber clarity in the film’s eloquent coda, which almost makes up for the silliness that precedes it. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 1, 2018
The film comes to concern a selfless martyr before morphing, most absurdly, into a disease-of-the-week tearjerker. Read full review
33
The Film StageMike MazzantiMay 10, 2018
A gripping highway heist sequence and two affecting lead performances are surrounded by a film that mistakes the knowledge of sadness for its authentication. Read full review
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