The Hummingbird Project
Orchard, The | Release Date: March 15, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatAlex SavelievMar 12, 2019
This hummingbird soars. It has that based-on-a-true-story feel, with all the urgency and verisimilitude of a real-life tale. A sad and visceral indictment of our society under the guise of a thriller, Kim Nguyen’s rousing cinematic elegy will sneak up on you, like its titular moth. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 22, 2019
Writer-director Nguyen cleverly unspools the story like a heist film, with Vincent wheeling and dealing every step of the way. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 18, 2019
Part thriller, part family drama, part satirical commentary on the way that the pursuit of wealth is a cultural cancer that taints everything it touches, The Hummingbird Project is no less compelling for its odd mishmash of components. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Simon HouptMar 21, 2019
And so you will get no Scorsesian tracking shots of firecracker trading floors, no giddy frat boy Champagne-shaking antics; this is a slow-boil thriller coursing with melancholy. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 21, 2019
Surprise! The Hummingbird Project basically works; it’s intriguing; the actors play it just straight enough to make it feel like a fact-based drama (though it isn’t) with a few darkly comic details. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 20, 2019
The Hummingbird Project — is at once an offbeat comedy and a satisfyingly weird thriller. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 19, 2019
Along the way, Hummingbird offers cogent commentary on the way unbridled avarice drives the search for even the smallest advantage in the cutthroat world of high finance. Read full review
70
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMar 15, 2019
The Hummingbird Project is most of a great movie. Amiable performances and a deft pace combine with high-contrast storytelling, and the results are generally engaging. Sometimes funny, sometimes smart, always watchable. But perhaps the film’s dedication to turning a clever tale into something profound was a miscalculation. Perhaps there were simply better ways to spend the time. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergMar 14, 2019
As the geological, financial and personal barriers the cousins face grow increasingly absurd, the movie works up a satisfying sweat. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMar 14, 2019
Despite esoteric subject matter, writer-director Kim Nguyen (War Witch) has crafted a smartly entertaining and unexpectedly human film with his financial thriller The Hummingbird Project. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 27, 2019
What makes The Hummingbird Project so intriguing is that it explores areas of business – and of industrial espionage – so esoteric that it's hard to imagine that it's really a business model. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMar 21, 2019
Though mired in arcane subject matter, the movie is always lucid and reasonably engaging. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 21, 2019
The Hummingbird Project is too slow and confused to work as a thriller, a drama, or something in between. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerJun 14, 2019
Although sometimes it gets bogged down in the details of drilling, The Hummingbird Project extracts enough entertainment value from an unpromising premise, greatly helped by Jesse Eisenberg finding the humanity in his hustler. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 20, 2019
It may be haphazard and loosely focused. But thanks to Skarsgård it’s never really boring. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 18, 2019
Some of the supporting actors register, especially Michael Mando as the unpretentious but quick-witted chief engineer. But the only surprise is Skarsgård. He has played wife-beaters, vampires, rapists, and mute would-be detectives, but who’d have thought he’d make a credible nerd? Read full review
58
Original-CinKim HughesMar 20, 2019
The Hummingbird Project is a fun enough ride though one with significant logic bumps that may prove as intractable as the terrain its characters hope to traverse. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMar 22, 2019
While treating entrepreneurism like a classic Greek tragedy isn’t a bad idea in theory, Nguyen’s script is more than a little clunky, and the imagery nakedly self-serving. It’s a film about two people digging a hole so they can make ten more dollars per transaction, no matter how handsomely it’s presented. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonMar 15, 2019
This one works overtime, shifting gears repeatedly without once providing enough substance for the viewer to engage. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartMar 14, 2019
Salma Hayek, as their vengeful ex-boss Eva Torres, is fun to watch as she plots to outwit them time and again, but ultimately, there’s no one here to really care about. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 13, 2019
Nguyen can stir up all the sturm and drang he wants, but Hummingbird feels as humdrum and impersonal as a blueprint. Read full review
42
The PlaylistWarren CantrellMar 14, 2019
A halfway interesting story with a few too many ideas and a lack of tonal cohesion. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillJun 18, 2019
It’s the kind of verbose corporate parable David Mamet would sit down to write after a heavy night on the sauce. Read full review
38
ObserverOliver JonesMar 19, 2019
While The Hummingbird Project may not be reap the benefits of a 13-episode season, at times, watching this dramatically flaccid tale of late-cycle capitalism run amok feels that long to get through. Read full review
38
Slant MagazinePat BrownMar 9, 2019
Throughout, the film can’t decide what attitude to strike toward its characters’ evident greed. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 21, 2019
The way that conflict plays out is also surprisingly plodding. Read full review
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