The Competition
| Release Date: February 22, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
1
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The Film StageRyan SwenFeb 21, 2019
Simon explores the extent to which both student and juror care about film, the occasional myopia when it comes to certain advisable standards of political correctness, and the casual way in which some hilariously denigrating remarks can be made. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 28, 2019
If the process of passing judgment at all fascinates you (and perhaps it goes without saying that it would fascinate a critic), it’s hard to resist The Competition’s extensive breakdown of how one weighs the merits of artistic goals and visions that tend to elude the usual scoring mechanisms. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansFeb 21, 2019
Simon’s fly-on-the-wall mode is a distancing tool, but shouldn’t be confused with ambivalence. Exposing the mechanics of decision-making is an implicit reproof of increasing conservatism, both of La Fémis itself and the film-makers they are producing. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyFeb 21, 2019
The movie’s most provocative aspect is its near-methodical portrayal of hive-mind thinking pursued as a kind of norm — not just by the examiners, but the hopeful applicants. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyFeb 21, 2019
Seeing, in Simon’s documentary, the directing candidates forced to analyze a scene, submit a dossier, step on a set and direct a dictated scene, is like watching the training of hired hands rather than original artists—people better suited to writing grant applications than scripts, better suited to following orders than creating new worlds, to playing the urbane part of a director in meetings and interviews than actually being one. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneFeb 21, 2019
Claire Simon knows that the best way to capture the anxiousness of a moment is to leave it unembellished. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerFeb 21, 2019
In the end, it’s hard to tell whether Simon is actually critical of her establishment’s methods or whether she fully embraces them, although she is clearly compassionate toward the applicants and offers a reasonable payoff when we finally learn who made the cut. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 22, 2019
What The Competition considers a deliciously exciting rite of passage, viewers might interpret as a kind of cultural rot. The truth likely falls somewhere in between, as Simone’s documentary is too gripping to be dismissed, and too queasy to be accepted. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFeb 20, 2019
Though The Competition lacks critical distance, what it offers, in spades, is the engrossing experience of watching other people endure pressure and humiliation — a thrill not unlike that of addictive reality TV, though one presumes that everyone involved would retch at the comparison. Read full review
60
The GuardianLeslie FelperinFeb 21, 2019
It’s clear that they want to run it as meritocratically as possible, but what’s interesting is how the criteria for what talent is and who gets to judge it come up for debate. Read full review
16
The PlaylistOktay Ege Kozak Feb 21, 2019
Unfocused and unpolished, “Le Concours” might’ve been fared better if one of the prospective students picked up the camera instead. Read full review
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