The Little Hours
Mongrel Media | Release Date: June 30, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 5, 2017
This is one of the funniest movies of the year. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 30, 2017
A riotous medieval-era sex romp played with lunatic conviction by a great cast. Read full review
88
TheWrapClaudia PuigJun 28, 2017
The Little Hours is no one-trick pony. While the lunacy of nuns who swear like sailors makes a comically boisterous impression, it’s also about women in the Middle Ages forced into religious life for various reasons and how they cope, viewed through a decidedly humorous lens. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 22, 2017
The movie is not camp. It’s deliciously deadpan sex farce played by some of the deftest clowns in the English-speaking world. The more matter-of-fact it is, the more screamingly funny. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 23, 2017
A comedy in both the current and the original senses of the word, Little Hours earns its laughs before ensuring a happy end. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 23, 2017
A medieval convent comedy for the megaplex crowd. Read full review
77
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJun 30, 2017
Though the connective tissue keeping the film’s story together often requires its thin characters to improvise or otherwise overstretch themselves from sketch to sketch—emphasizing their relative shallowness as short story subjects—the medieval absurdity at the heart of the comedy always lands. Read full review
77
The VergeChris PlanteJan 23, 2017
Writer-director Jeff Baena has squeezed heart into this film, particularly with a surprisingly sincere, potent ending. Beneath all the bodily fluids and sex jokes, Baena and his actors show a deep fascination with the way we communicate our love, romantically and platonically — especially when the going gets tough. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 20, 2017
The Little Hours is less than the sum of its many comedy parts but some of those many are hilarious. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 13, 2017
True, The Little Hours is essentially a one-joke comedy — but most of the jokes under the umbrellas of that one joke are pretty damn, I mean darn, funny. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 13, 2017
I liked a lot of writer-director Jeff Baena's picture; it may be a one-joke movie, but I've seen comedies recently that would've killed for that many. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJul 5, 2017
The film manages to be both crudely hilarious and bluntly satiric while also establishing sympathetic characters, a sharp contemporary wit, a sly, dry absurdism. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 29, 2017
Anachronism, as it turns out, is the guiding force of this frequently funny, agreeably bawdy farce, which imagines what a convent of the grubby, violent, disease-infested Middle Ages might look and sound like if it were populated by characters straight out of a modern NBC sitcom. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganJun 29, 2017
Writer-director Jeff Baena adapts parts of Boccaccio’s Decameron into an absurd and hysterical tale of nuns gone wild. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 29, 2017
For all its hip ludicrousness, The Little Hours has a point: to almost earnestly riff on how atheism has taken hold of 21st-century America, by rooting our nation’s moors in a time of great austerity, sexism, classism, and persecution. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJan 23, 2017
Matching a crackling wit with the absurd dissonance of time and place found in the best of Monty Python and Mel Brooks, Little Hours is so eager to please that its one-note humor lands with ease. Read full review
75
The PlaylistNoel MurrayJan 23, 2017
Even if The Little Hours never becomes a knee-slapper, it’s consistently entertaining…kind of like a laid-back, stretched-out Monty Python sketch. Read full review
70
Village VoiceApril WolfeJun 29, 2017
This isn’t a laugh-a-minute movie; it’s more a succession of snickers, punctuated by genuine emotion. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 28, 2017
The characters are distinct, if broadly drawn, with Aubrey, Micucci, Reilly and Franco making the strongest impressions. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 13, 2017
No matter how obvious the set-up – what if men and women of the cloth were … rude and sexy??? – the cast gives every scene just enough of a deadpan spin to sell it, at least for the first hour. After the final 30 minutes come and go, including a frantic detour into witchcraft, you may seek out a convent of your own. Read full review
60
IGNAlex WelchJun 29, 2017
The Little Hours is an enjoyable comedy that wears a little too thin by the time it’s over. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoJun 28, 2017
The Little Hours is saved by Fred Armisen and Kate Miccuci, the only performers who don't suffer from the film's one-note delivery at some point. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJan 23, 2017
On paper, The Little Hours sounds like a combative anti-religious tract, but Baena’s less interested in mocking the church than in basking in the gulf between humanity’s lofty aspirations and its baser instincts. Read full review
58
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJun 27, 2017
The Little Hours is reasonably entertaining, but it hints just enough at something deeper that it may well leave you wanting. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 23, 2017
It’s far from achieving the holy grail of comedy, but as a frivolous, fleeting time, The Little Hours has its charms thanks to the strength of its cast. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 6, 2017
The Little Hours seldom rises above a clever but lightweight one-liner. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 5, 2017
The Little Hours is a farce that doesn’t really mock anything. It exists as if amusing itself were its only objective. In that, this troupe may have succeeded, but I feel compelled to throw back the film’s favorite phrase: “What the f--k?” Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJun 29, 2017
The Little Hours gets freaky, but it never feels truly subversive, or even that titillating. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 29, 2017
The Little Hours is saved from ignominy by two brief standout performances. Read full review
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