The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future
Kino Lorber | Release Date: May 19, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
VarietyManuel BetancourtMay 19, 2023
Rather than let its timely concerns be embalmed in didacticism, Alegría has crafted a film about healing generational trauma through new modes of living and experiencing desire — of reshaping the world in a way that feels inclusive and expansive, and which does away with relics of a past that should be left to rot at the bottom of a river. Read full review
90
The New York TimesBrandon YuMay 18, 2023
The power of Alegría’s feature debut is found not in dialogue or explication, but in the lyrical, magical realist qualities of folklore: disappointed mothers and fathers, sacred animals and cursed rivers, love and forgiveness. Read full review
83
IndieWireRafael MotamayorMar 30, 2023
Providing many questions and very few answers, Alegría and co-writers Fernanda Urrejole and Manuela Infante make a point to show that life can emerge from death, imploring the audience to stop fixating on the damages done in the past and focus on saving the present and future. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarMay 25, 2023
The solution, the filmmaker argues, is a spiritual communion with the unknown, because there’s healing in surrendering to one’s perfect insignificance as part of something bigger. Read full review
80
VoxAlissa WilkinsonMar 30, 2023
The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future is mysterious and elegiac, a tale of warning about a collapsing ecosystem and about deep family wounds. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan HollandMar 30, 2023
Solidly grounded, teeming with thought-provoking ideas, wonderfully atmospheric, and often visually striking, this magical realist eco-fable about a dead mother who returns to transform the lives of her dysfunctional family pays the price for its own high ambition and is simply unable to sustain the intensity until the end. But until then, it’s a hypnotic and entrancing ride. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganMar 30, 2023
Though the film can at times feel long-winded—a common predicament when transitioning from shorts to features—it is a heady and hypnotic parable for the irreparable ecological harm humans have committed, while insisting that it’s not too late to connect and reconcile with the land that nurtures us. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 22, 2023
Maestro and Varela are the soul and heart — respectively — of this film, one giving it a speechless urgency, the other bringing a woman of science’s common sense pathos and rising alarm. Read full review
67
The Film StageMichael FrankMar 30, 2023
This feature debut represents a big swing for the Chilean director, a thoughtful, deliberate drama bursting with ecological and personal imagery. A patient narrative rewarding the patient viewer, Cow‘s an abstract portrait of a family and environment in crisis. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMay 19, 2023
Yes, a mournful song is woven throughout, hence the title. But The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future also requires great patience—it might be too slow of a slow burn—and there’s not much to her characters beyond a few barely sketched traits. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 30, 2023
Blending science fiction and magical realism, environmental catastrophe and family secrets, Francisca Alegría’s heady mystery is an ambitious and murkily atmospheric debut. Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeMar 30, 2023
While, yes, TCWSSF is a dreamy magical realist fable with an environmental message, Alegría weaves into her tale an emotionally satisfying, gripping family drama, with singing cows – and fish too. Read full review
60
Little White LiesCaitlin QuinlanMar 30, 2023
As a folkloric meditation on the relationship between human and environment, mother and child, Alegría’s film has an earthly mystical quality to it, moving through its minimal plot with fluidity and enticement. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassMay 15, 2023
The film is an object lesson in what can result when a work of art subordinates itself to a message. Read full review
35
Film ThreatCalan PanchooJun 22, 2023
Ultimately, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future represents one of the sternest examples of sacrificing the heart of a film for the demands of a specific message. Every genuinely compelling moment is forced to become an object of one-dimensional dogma. And all of the film’s latent wonder is sacrificed at the altar of hollow reductionism. Read full review
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