The Legend of Molly Johnson
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: August 19, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
VarietyJoe LeydonMay 12, 2021
An exceptionally compelling Outback Western. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comNell MinowAug 19, 2022
Skillfully weaving in themes of race, gender, abuse, and historic injustice while making each character authentically human, the film calls on us to consider the human strength and the human cost of history. Read full review
80
Time OutStephen A. RussellMay 5, 2022
Rewriting the narrative through an anti-colonial, Black and feminist lens, Purcell bestowed a First Nations background and the moniker Molly Johnson on Lawson’s unnamed protagonist. Delving deeper into Molly’s troubles in the novel of the same name, this film marks her third spin at the material. It’s still riveting. Read full review
80
Screen DailySarah WardMar 21, 2021
The atmospheric revenge-thriller marks the feature filmmaking debut of actor/writer/director Leah Purcell, who plays the titular matriarch with steely resolve, rousingly adapts her own play and book, and delivers an impassioned film with an unflinching Indigenous and feminist perspective. Read full review
76
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganAug 17, 2022
As a piece of revisionist mythmaking, the film employs a staunchly feminist, Aboriginal liberationist lens, one perfectly molded for Purcell’s specific gaze. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakAug 19, 2022
The Legend of Molly Johnson never feels like anything but a cinematic experience. Read full review
70
Film ThreatBradley GibsonMar 21, 2021
Despite struggling with a thematic focus, the film presents a woman who is well worth getting to know. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayAug 19, 2022
The Legend of Molly Johnson is too ploddingly paced and too visually bland to stand with the great movie westerns — American or Australian. But Purcell does give a heartrending lead performance, playing a woman whose iron will may not be able to withstand the mob’s prejudices. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMay 15, 2022
The film tackles issues of race, sexual violence and the low-level simmering cruelty that is a fact of life for those hardy individuals who make a life in the bush in the late 19th century. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMay 13, 2022
Unfortunately, the longer the film goes on the more blankly didactic it becomes. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsMay 13, 2022
Occasionally, the film does lack ambiguity, and there are a number of characters who, just through the casting, make-up and dress, come across as one-dimensional extremes of “goodies” and “baddies”. Yet Molly herself, and the seemingly endless string of physical and psychological trials she endures . . . makes for a satisfying emotional core. Read full review
60
The GuardianDebbie ZhouNov 9, 2021
It’s Purcell’s powerhouse performance that lends the film its punchier, gritty edge. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 21, 2021
An interrogation of Australia's history of racial violence that also takes on gender, identity and domestic abuse against a backdrop right out of an archetypal high country Western, the engrossing thriller is admirably ambitious but choppy, at times eluding the director's grasp. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandMar 21, 2021
Purcell, as star, stays resolute to the last, but as filmmaker, her sharp ideas are dulled into something that barely leaves a mark. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 18, 2022
Purcell’s performance and ambition in reframing this foundational Australian tale are admirable. But her version of the story would be more resonant if it held more mystery and less message. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleLina FisherAug 18, 2022
Unfortunately, the story drags for the first half of the film, and the downright cheesy score and ending song disrupt scenes that could have carried the emotional weight better on their own. Read full review
50
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeAug 18, 2022
It’s an earnest film, one that glows with pride at Aboriginal resilience. But the impression it leaves is didactic, a saints and demons fable that meanders to foregone conclusions. Read full review
40
CineVueMatthew AndersonMar 21, 2021
The metaphors of colonial history, the subjugation of women and Aboriginal peoples, vicious social ills and a nation’s hidden guilty past are all alluded to. But their treatment in The Legend of Molly Johnson are not developed to the extent needed to leave the lasting gut punch, and change of consciousness, this admirable project could have achieved. Read full review
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