Slow West
A24 | Release Date: May 15, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
3
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 12, 2015
Its central journey lives up to the title: Maclean finds time to savor rivers and starscapes and layers of light and mountainous land. The dialogue is flighty yet weighty, each line like some delicate woodcut. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossMay 20, 2015
A folksy fable defined equally by its whimsy and wistfulness. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 20, 2015
Imagine Terrence Malick directing the climax of "The Wild Bunch," and you’re on the right track. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeb 1, 2015
A dark, but spirited fable about the pitilessness of the West, the meaning of home on the range and the worthwhile qualities of wicked, seemingly irredeemable men, “Slow West” is a terrific little parable, and a strong debut by John Maclean worth treasuring. Read full review
80
EmpireOlly RichardsJun 23, 2015
Maclean has made a Western of such confident ease that it’s hard to believe this is the director’s first feature film. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 21, 2015
It's always entertaining to see a genre tweaked, at least when it's done so with the proper mix of respect and madness at work in Slow West. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 14, 2015
The glorious cinematography, by Robbie Ryan, sharply illustrates the disparity between the rugged majesty of the landscape and the savagery of its outlaws and adventurers, who resemble vermin scuttling through the underbrush of a perilous no man’s land. Read full review
80
The DissolveTasha RobinsonMay 13, 2015
Slow West often feels like the Coen brothers’ rendition of True Grit, if they’d brought Wes Anderson in as a collaborator. It’s a shaggy-dog story full of colorful characters and aimless but diverting narrative byways, all delivered with Andersonian solemnity, against a backdrop of deeply saturated colors and meticulously dressed sets. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 13, 2015
Slow West isn’t a grand epic of that genre. It’s more like “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” “Dead Man” or the recent “The Homesman,” using familiar signposts to tell a simple, compelling, terrific story. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichMay 12, 2015
Like any good Western, Slow West percolates with the constant threat of violence, but debuting feature director John Maclean wrings the genre for its mythic value. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 11, 2015
The director is John Maclean, making his début, and, if he demonstrates how hard it is to handle whimsy, he more than atones for it with two tremendous set pieces — one in a store, and the other in an isolated homestead, girded with cornfields where a shooter can nestle and hide. Read full review
80
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyMar 27, 2015
The saga, directed by a Scot in New Zealand with no American actors, takes us back to American truths. Guns, greed and rugged nature defined the West, setting the New World apart from the old. The roots run deep. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 17, 2015
John Maclean’s impeccably crafted writing-directing debut at times has a distinctly Coen-esque flavor in its mix of sly intelligence, bleak humor and unsettling violence, exuding fierce confidence even when these qualities don’t always cohere in the smoothest or most emotionally impactful fashion. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeFeb 1, 2015
Maclean's screenplay is unshowy but keen. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 28, 2015
Slow West doesn’t really go anywhere we haven’t been, but because Maclean is discovering the genre for the first time, we see through his fresh yet jaundiced eyes. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMay 21, 2015
[A] meandering, deliberate and tearless — yet oddly moving — western vehicle. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 15, 2015
The film is too artsy for its own good, but it has some marvelous Coen Brothers-style black humor. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 5, 2015
Maclean and his cast create a sound, tone and feel that makes even a moldy tale like this lean, mean and fresh, even if it never quite transcends the gun smoke of its genre. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMay 14, 2015
Between the gorgeous locations (New Zealand subs for Colorado), a credible emotional core, some effectively droll dialogue and a well-staged finale, Slow West is worth a look. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 27, 2015
If Slow West never quite settles on a tone to call its own, it does still offer many pleasures. Fassbender and Smit-McPhee are excellent — the boy's outward bewilderment and unpreparedness play off well against the cowboy’s ragged, stone-faced charisma. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 22, 2015
Despite convincing work from its cast, the movie remains oddly uninvolving. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMay 13, 2015
What it demonstrates most conclusively is that writer-director John Maclean, making his first feature after a career spent mostly as a musician (notably as a member of The Beta Band), knows how to tell a terrific yarn. Why he chose not to do so with the movie as a whole, then, is something of a mystery. Read full review
58
IndieWireAnisha JhaveriFeb 1, 2015
Slow West certainly makes a valiant effort to reach beyond expectations of its genre, even leaving room for some welcome tongue-in-cheek humor when it's least expected. But at the end, all its waffling between various stylistic touchstones fails to hold much interest. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 21, 2015
If ultimately Slow West seems more like a filmmaking exercise than an engaging piece of work — despite Fassbender’s star presence — that’s all right. Filmmakers need to get their exercise. Let’s see what Maclean does next. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezMay 10, 2015
A pageantry of pseudo-art poses, a self-consciously cool reorientation of the western as silly symphony. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireMay 15, 2015
From first till last, this tale of a hard-boiled bounty hunter helping a Scottish lad on his quest to find the woman he loves, who’s on the lam in the old West, is a tissue of creaky contrivances and outright absurdities. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMay 13, 2015
Slow West certainly lives up to its title: It’s one poky Western, plodding and perambulating and moseying across the 1870 frontier on a grim march to a pointless ending. Read full review
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