The Human Voice
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 12, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 24, 2021
The Human Voice is a banquet disguised as a light lunch, heady with flavors; you come away blissfully sated and hungry for more. Read full review
100
Film ThreatLorry KiktaAug 23, 2021
Please seek out The Human Voice as soon as you can. It is a short, shockingly beautiful exploration of the stages of abandonment. Read full review
91
IndieWireNicholas BarberSep 28, 2020
It’s a sharp if slightly caricatured portrait of despair and loneliness — and, indeed, madness and melancholy. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarMar 11, 2021
Swinton manifests, with magnificently nuanced modulation, an emotional tangle; at times, it is raw with a cathartic force, while enmeshed with meekly conciliatory moments of codependence. Wielding a hatchet with violent purpose or begging for a final rendezvous, Swinton’s every scorching word cuts deep. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 18, 2021
The Human Voice is all about the muddied lines between the fabricated and the genuine, and about how much a performance can be divorced from the sincere feelings that might be undergirding it. Read full review
89
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganOct 7, 2020
Instead of acting as a short, satisfying jaunt through Almodóvar’s aesthetic, The Human Voice is an exercise in deconstructing the very tenets the filmmaker has propped himself on throughout the entirety of his career. Read full review
85
PolygonKaren HanOct 7, 2020
It’s a delight no matter how you slice it; for fans, it’s a reminder of what makes Almodóvar such a great director, and for neophytes, it’s an unforgettable introduction. Read full review
100
Rolling StoneDavid FearMay 3, 2021
Even though it retains the basic theatrical conceit of a lone character having a one-sided conversation, it is pure cinema, because how could Almodóvar and Swinton do anything but turn this into pure cinema? Read full review
75
The Film StageDavid KatzSep 28, 2020
Almodóvar’s work always evokes other artforms beyond the cinema. The Human Voice shows how great texts are malleable: this is his particular take, and not a definitive, canonical edition. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 13, 2021
Swinton’s delivery has a theatrical style – it very much feels as if we could be watching a stage show – and there is something frozenly despairing about it; it is the voice of someone who is unwilling to relinquish her dignity or rationality and just give in to an aria of sadness. Read full review
90
The New York TimesGlenn KennyApr 1, 2021
Almodóvar’s sense of cinema design — the décor simulates a luxe apartment and lays it bare as a soundstage illusion — is acutely keyed to Swinton’s performance here, which projects mercurial emotion with Swiss watch precision. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 28, 2020
This is Almodóvar, and so the magnificence is worn lightly, with irony and mischief and a cheeky little moral about how to be a modern woman trapped in the very unmodern role of spurned lover: be hysterical if you want, be philosophical if you can, but never underestimate the liberating power of a little light revenge. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 20, 2021
This is his and Swinton’s first film together: in fact, it is the Spanish master’s first English-language production. But the two are an obviously good creative match, each one well-versed in the interplay of depth and surface, and capable of switching moods from ripe to heartfelt in a blink. Read full review
100
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 29, 2020
This small package stands alongside the exemplary feature-length work in one of this generation’s foremost filmographies. Read full review
80
Time OutHuw OliverMar 31, 2021
The Human Voice is the Spanish director’s first English-language film and you’ll inevitably go away yearning for more as soon as the half hour is up. Read full review
50
Vanity FairCassie da CostaMar 16, 2021
The Human Voice’s images tend to call out in vain; not an utterance is heard. They are symbols suspended in time and space, indicators of something that doesn’t seem to matter very much. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 28, 2020
The Human Voice, in all its delicious absurdity and kitsch extravagance, ties into the concerns of emotional abandonment and disrupted communication that have long run through his [Almodóvar's] more ostensibly serious works. Read full review
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