Swallow
IFC Films | Release Date: March 6, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
4
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistLena WilsonMay 4, 2019
A staggering accomplishment in its storytelling, visuals, and performance. Read full review
90
Film ThreatLorry KiktaMar 4, 2020
Mirabella-Davis somehow perfectly captures a woman’s perspective on the twisted series of events that leads Hunter to where she lands by the end of the film. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comJustine SmithMar 6, 2020
Swallow draws on how feminine perfection can so often be associated with self-destructive behavior. Read full review
83
The Film StageJared MobarakMar 5, 2020
Inspired by his grandmother’s institutionalization for OCD and propelled by his own experiences having identified as both genders during his lifetime, writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ fictional feature debut Swallow provides its lead an escape through pica. Read full review
80
Time OutGreer McNallyMar 6, 2020
Denis O’Hare delivers a heart-stopping performance as Hunter’s unlikely father figure, but this is Bennett’s show. She is luminous and her journey from beautiful, broken housewife to clear-headed woman, grabbing handfuls of soil from a parking lot to snack on later, is thrilling. It’s a role you can imagine a young Isabelle Huppert playing, and there’s no higher praise than that. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKimber MyersMar 5, 2020
Swallow is difficult viewing at times, but it’s psychologically rich and always feels genuine, even in its gorgeously stylized approach to the interior life of its complex protagonist. Read full review
80
Screen DailyStephen Whitty May 3, 2019
Carefully made and perfectly acted. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfMar 11, 2020
It’s a film with women in mind, and one that does not judge their choices when it comes to the health of their own bodies and their own minds. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 11, 2020
Bennett claims her own form of autonomy with the movie itself, which could be read as an actress’s decision to stop hoping for good scripts to arrive over the transom and make her own luck. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 6, 2020
Although it’s a reductive statement, calling Swallow a high-class version of "My Strange Addiction" isn’t entirely inaccurate. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartMar 4, 2020
Bennett, who’s been largely off the radar for a while, is heartbreaking and, eventually, fierce as her character begins to crave change. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 4, 2020
There’s a touch of “The Invisible Man” to this unsettling story of the misery of being married to a cruel control freak. But “Swallow,” for all its People Magazine psychoanalysis, is harrowing in different ways and gripping in its myopia. All Hunter has is this mania for “control” of one thing in her life — what she puts in her mouth. All we have is worry over her mental health, and discomfort in confronting it. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 26, 2020
Fortunately for the film, Carlo Mirabella-Davis continually springs scenes that either transcend or justify his preaching. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 3, 2019
A provocative and frequently brilliant thriller. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 19, 2020
While "The Invisible Man" was built around its clever set pieces rather than its characters, Swallow is led by its protagonist’s mental and emotional state. It takes place in a landscape that’s largely internal — but that’s territory that can be just as filled with darkness and dread as a forbidding mansion. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 5, 2019
A bold and unconventional thriller made real by the evolution of lead actress Haley Bennett ... Is it exploitative? Yes, to an extent that’s true. ... But, as in such Alfred Hitchcock classics as “Spellbound” and “Marnie,” with their facile psychoanalytic interpretations of compulsive and/or hysterical behavior, the approach can be quite effective in revealing the gender dynamics of the times. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 28, 2020
This is a movie that cries out for attention, in ways both admirable and grating. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 26, 2020
The film’s greatest strength is its lead actress, Haley Bennett, who’s on camera for almost the entire running time and who portrays a desperately lonely woman’s journey through self-destruction toward something like sanity. Read full review
50
The New York TimesKristen Yoonsoo KimMar 5, 2020
Given how nauseating it is to watch Hunter perform increasingly perilous acts of self-harm in her prison of a mansion, neither the payoff nor the psychology behind her actions makes Swallow an illuminating enough addition to the woman-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown genre. Read full review
50
TheWrapCandice FrederickMar 4, 2020
There are really two contending films inside Swallow that, if given the opportunity and the space to do so, could have been fascinating as separate entities. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 11, 2020
Because there’s nary a situation that seems reality-based and uncontrived in this movie that has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, filled with over-the-top cardboard characters that seem sneered upon by their creator. If Mirabella-Davis doesn’t believe in his characters, why should we? Read full review
10
The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesMay 3, 2019
The idea is cartoonish in its essence but the pic is shot and played with such straight-faced realism that Swallow becomes utterly ridiculous. Read full review
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