Settlers
IFC Midnight | Release Date: July 23, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
4
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapRonda Racha PenriceJul 22, 2021
Unlike many previous films and TV shows that ponder the possibility of life on Mars, “Settlers” is thoughtful and nuanced, with Rockefeller posing extremely difficult (and resonant) questions about entitlement and even the future of human existence. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJul 22, 2021
With Settlers, Rockefeller and his crew have created a striking little treatise on our misguided ambitions. Read full review
75
PolygonRoxana HadadiJul 23, 2021
Rockefeller only repeats other science fiction, rather than inventing big ideas of his own. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayJul 23, 2021
The core question Settlers asks is who “deserves” to occupy this inhospitable planet. To Rockefeller’s credit, he doesn’t offer any pat answers. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeJun 27, 2021
n the ranks of cinematic journeys to Mars, Settlers ranks among the less fancifully and lavishly invented, yet it’s all the more effective for its earthly restraint: You can change the planet, Rockefeller suggests, but humanity stays pretty much the same. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 23, 2021
Ultimately, though, Settlers is more about setting a mood and painting a picture of hopelessness than explaining what happened before the story, what’s happening beyond the borders of the compound and what lies ahead for Remmy. It feels incomplete. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassJul 21, 2021
Settlers allows for weighty themes to play out inside a cramped domestic setting, wary of easy answers or moral platitudes. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 6, 2021
With Settlers, the filmmaker takes us on a journey as much internal as extra-terrestrial. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 28, 2021
Settlers isn’t perfect: some of the storytelling beats aren’t hit as clearly as they could have been. But it’s a quietly impressive piece of work. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 19, 2021
Tense and firm at either end, it sags in the middle like a mattress. Also, the grownups are pretty dull and flat, their mood set to maximum glower; luckily, we have Remmy—played first by Brooklynn Prince and later, as a teen-ager, by Nell Tiger Free—to steer us through the doldrums and to energize the plot. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 23, 2021
With a strong cast and an intriguing premise that basically transports a Western plot into outer space, Settlers should work, but it simply sags in the middle, only barely sparking to life again in a more suspenseful final act. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJul 22, 2021
Ultimately, the slow boil bleakness of the script, with its subtle ruminations of what it is to go on in a time of hopelessness, is what marks Settlers apart, even as it looks and feels like so many of the post-apocalyptic drought-plagued SF dramas of the last few years. Read full review
33
The PlaylistBrian FarvourJul 24, 2021
Settlers is ultimately little more than a bit of style and a smattering of substance. Read full review
33
The Film StageJared MobarakJul 20, 2021
The thing about withholding plot information is that you must generally divulge that which you’ve held back at some point. To simply ignore that your audience is in the dark as far as the big picture is concerned is a sure-fire way to lose interest. Read full review
30
The New York TimesLena WilsonJul 22, 2021
Settlers purports to challenge violence against women and colonialism. Instead, the female protagonist wallows in powerlessness for most of the movie, and a boxy robot is ultimately presented as more sympathetic than a displaced brown man. Read full review
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