Sauvage / Wild
Strand Releasing | Release Date: April 10, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisMay 1, 2019
By the end, we’ve experienced one of the best films about street hustling ever made. Read full review
100
Screen DailyLisa NesselsonMay 18, 2018
Gut-punchingly authentic with radiant moments of tenderness where least expected, intimate yet not voyeuristic, this first feature by writer-director Camille Vidal-Naquet gets the balance between looking-for-love and settling-for-sensation exactly right. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 18, 2018
Sauvage captures the multitude of emotion or lack of, that come with Leo’s tricks. There’s jealousy, pain, excitement, cruelty and even monotonous apathy where you’d least expect it. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 25, 2019
Vidal-Naquet’s film knows that every wound and balm to the flesh is also one to the spirit. Read full review
90
TheWrapDan CallahanApr 10, 2019
Sauvage/Wild is dependent on Maritaud, who shows no fear or restraint when it comes to giving his entire body over to every one of his scenes, because this is a film partly about using your body as a commodity and how that commodity can decline and break down very early. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 18, 2018
There are fleeting moments of wit, bliss and even tenderness amid the gritty severity, as Vidal-Naquet perceptively portrays not just the lonely, drug-fueled rigors of the hustler lifestyle, but the simultaneously competitive and supportive fraternal community that sustains it. Read full review
80
EmpireChristina NewlandFeb 26, 2019
This is a sexually frank and arrestingly tender perspective of a young man in freefall. It occasionally leans too far into the horrors of street prostitution, but it’s mostly an open-minded view of its shiftless main character. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 18, 2018
Sauvage is often difficult viewing, and Leo tries our patience and compassion as anyone habitually treating themselves so poorly can. Nevertheless, the film achieves a sort of grace, in moments of sweetness and stillness, when the fullness of Leo’s being—be it ravaged and weary—is palpable and, finally, undeniable. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 10, 2019
The actual filmmaking, and the excellent acting, do a good job of camouflaging the way Vidal-Naquet ultimately romanticizes Léo. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneApr 6, 2019
The film is a tale about how those who spiral so far out of control become blind, if not immune, to the severity of their symptoms. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMar 29, 2019
From its title on down, Sauvage / Wild is a film that’s torn between different translations of the same basic principle — one soft and the other hard. There’s no judgement of him whatsoever, to the point where it sometimes feels like the character is more of a construct than he is a fully dimension person of flesh and blood. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 11, 2019
Still, the moments that hit hardest concern Leo’s relationship with Ahd (a very fine Eric Bernard), another male hustler who claims he’s only “gay 4 pay.” Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 18, 2018
Sauvage has its longueurs, at times seeming stuck in a circuitous groove with too little forward momentum. However, the movie is never banal. It's a fully inhabited world that pulls us in. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 28, 2019
What is interesting about Sauvage is that it shows how savagely boring Leo’s life is, quite a lot of the time. Read full review
58
The Film StageMark AschMar 25, 2019
A film which frequently falls back on contrived, conventional storytelling at odds its with its body-and-soul immersion into the physical and emotional toll of life on the game. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergApr 10, 2019
It’s tough to build a character study around an unconvincing character. Read full review
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