Stillwater
Focus Features | Release Date: July 30, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
17
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 20, 2021
Audiences will come away feeling like they’ve really been somewhere, that they were moved by the people they met and expanded by the experience. You can’t ask more from a movie. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 29, 2021
Even when the story comes close to flying off the rails, Matt Damon holds steady and commands the screen. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJul 30, 2021
Stillwater is the new movie from director Tom McCarthy, and it feels like one he’s spent his career preparing for — an enthralling, exasperating, and, above all else, ambitious affair that doesn’t soften or demand sympathy for its difficult main character but does insist on according him his full humanity. Read full review
80
ABC NewsPeter TraversJul 30, 2021
As a blunt-force Oklahoma oil rigger trying to save his daughter jailed in France for murder, Matt Damon gives an indelible, implosive performance in a deeply personal human drama disguised as a crime thriller. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJul 9, 2021
From one vantage point, Stillwater may just be a sentimental and lurid riff on the infamous Amanda Knox case. But I think McCarthy has something bigger in mind, which he pokes at intriguingly throughout his movie’s considerable sprawl. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 9, 2021
The movie’s more interesting for being less obvious. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 2, 2021
Stillwater is a mainstream work that contradicts preconceived notions, and is all the more fascinating for it. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 29, 2021
What director Tom McCarthy’s intriguing film — which is a tad overlong — deftly explores are the cultural barriers that prevent us from achieving basic goals, such as solving a murder, and connecting with people unlike ourselves. The story is a lot more nuanced than France vs. America. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyJul 29, 2021
Bill is a hard part to pull off, but Damon does, creating a flawed but compassionate character, made doubly hard since he outwardly reveals little emotion. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 28, 2021
It’s the first time McCarthy has made such prickly use of his talent for summoning audience sympathy, allowing Bill’s regrets about his parental shortcomings to resonate through his every decision. Read full review
75
The Film StageJake Kring-SchreifelsJul 28, 2021
Is it possible to stand out and disappear at the same time? Matt Damon makes a convincing case study in Stillwater. Read full review
75
TheWrapBen CrollJul 9, 2021
Bracketed by genre on both ends, the middle third of this 140-minute film becomes a gentle tale about a misfit finding in a platonic relationship a kind of second chance in life. In other words, it becomes a certain kind of Tom McCarthy film — and then gets back to the overarching story. Read full review
70
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiJul 30, 2021
Despite its very flawed ending and baggy structure, Stillwater goes against the tide of our expectations and offers us a disarmingly affecting character study, anchored by an exceptional performance by Damon. Not even his bad beard could distract from that. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 29, 2021
Matt Damon, in the central role, confers a somber grace on a man who always thought he had none. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 9, 2021
McCarthy pushes the thriller narrative in directions more extreme and harrowing than plausible, bringing Bill and Allison’s story to an unexpected point of reckoning. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 8, 2021
A strained but strangely affecting turducken of a movie. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 30, 2021
Fine performances aside, this is a classic 100 minute thriller that runs on for an extra 40 minutes and blows the punch line. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedJul 30, 2021
With little action, no suspense and an ending that fails in every way, Matt Damon is the only thing memorable about Stillwater. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 30, 2021
Ultimately, the cacophony of all these plot lines converging and the weight of the messaging being conveyed is almost too much to bear. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 29, 2021
As in life, what drives most of the drama in this overstuffed but often thought-provoking movie is a failure to communicate. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJul 29, 2021
The quality of the acting makes it easy to overlook how increasingly leaden Stillwater becomes — but not easy enough. Read full review
61
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 26, 2021
It is at once highly watchable and baffling. Read full review
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