The Better Angels
| Release Date: November 7, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 6, 2014
If you succumb to The Better Angels, the effect is like falling into a gorgeous photograph, but that also means the narrative in this arthouse film is oblique and sketchy. Read full review
60
TheWrapJames RocchiNov 5, 2014
Mr. Edwards has given his film a strong narrative spine — depicting years in the life of young Abraham Lincoln as his family suffers and strives to succeed in Indiana — with such committed actors bringing life to the tale that the audience can't help but be engaged even as the staid, stark visuals keep viewers at arm's length. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloNov 6, 2014
As an impression of a Terrence Malick film, The Better Angels is technically faultless, unimprovable. All that’s missing is the soul. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 21, 2014
Directed by Terrence Malick's editor and protégé, A.J. Edwards, The Better Angels abounds with Malick-ian moments: upward-pointing cameras capturing bodies wheeling through fields, plaintive voice-overs punctuated by Jew's harp and birdsong, a tendency to drift toward the sky and its moody tableau of clouds. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 20, 2014
The only problem with The Better Angels is that it’s not nimble enough to vary its strategy or to find ways for the character of young Abe (Braydon Denney) to grow over the course of the movie. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramNov 13, 2014
If the stream-of-consciousness, imagery-trumps-everything films of Terrence Malick tend to try your patience, this beautifully, beatifically boring imitation by a Malick protégé might be more than the better angels of your nature can endure. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughNov 13, 2014
Humorless, pretentious black-and-white tone poem about a very young Abe Lincoln. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenNov 6, 2014
In the absence of a more conventional storytelling approach, this series of brief, fragmented glimpses of the harsh challenges that shaped Lincoln's early life never allows you to get sufficiently close to its celebrated subject. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithNov 5, 2014
Rendering the life of young Abraham Lincoln as a tone poem, The Better Angels sags under the weight of its own resolute earnestness. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyJeff LabrecqueNov 24, 2014
It feels more like a poem. Or, at times, a symphony. But it's much less effective as an actual movie. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanNov 7, 2014
There’s slow cinema and there is boring cinema, and this is an unfortunate example of the latter. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 6, 2014
The sense of predestination hangs heavily over the movie, but not a sense of life. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 5, 2014
The main flaw — twirling farm girls and grunting oxen aside — is an utter lack of insight into the future leader’s character. Read full review
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