Shepherds and Butchers
Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date (Streaming): January 31, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 22, 2021
I found the picture moving in spite of its seeming unwillingness to wholly grapple with race and Coogan’s unwillingness to master the Afrikaner accent. He’s a gifted mimic, and Riseborough manages it. What gives? But what it does wrestle with is profound, and profoundly disturbing. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 23, 2021
Dowds’ harrowed, haunted performance as a boy overwhelmed not just by the wolves to which he has been thrown, but the ones he claims have unconsciously emerged within him, gives the film its anxious emotional center. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerFeb 22, 2021
This well-intentioned if somewhat heavy-handed historical affair is anchored by Coogan’s solid lead turn, with support from Andrea Riseborough as a hard-hitting state prosecutor and promising newcomer Garion Dowds as an executioner who could wind up facing the gallows. Read full review
40
Screen DailyLee MarshallFeb 23, 2021
What stands out in relief from the film’s flat characters and pedestrian storytelling is its dramatic core: the killing machine that death row had become in South Africa by the end of the 1980s, with 164 executions taking place in Pretoria Central Prison in the year in which Shepherds And Butchers is set, 1987. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesFeb 22, 2021
Shepherds and Butchers doesn’t know which it is: the twisty legal drama that’s going to herd us through the issue or the ferocious expose, laying out the quotidian grimness of systemic death. It’s better at the latter. Even though much of the action is penned in the courtroom, the horror – and the interest – are played out in the past. Read full review
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