The Love Witch
Oscilloscope | Release Date: November 11, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 11, 2017
LA film-maker Anna Biller achieves an ecstasy of artificiality in this amazing retro fantasy horror, delivered with absolute conviction. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlNov 17, 2016
Anna Biller's ripe, vibrant The Love Witch is an act of reclamation — and love. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 17, 2016
[Russ] Meyer could never make a psychodrama as sophisticated as Biller has now. Read full review
91
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonNov 10, 2016
The Love Witch, by writer/director Anna Biller, is a feminist film about a character who thinks feminism is bad news. It's delightful. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeNov 9, 2016
If The Love Witch simply raised the profile of its director, Anna Biller — a true auteur who not only wrote, directed, produced, and edited this film but also designed and hand made its sets and costumes — then it would be a success. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichNov 8, 2016
Biller spins an archly funny — but also hyper-sincere — story about the true price of the patriarchy. There hasn’t been anything quite like it in decades. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJun 23, 2016
The Love Witch is an expertly executed homage that works brilliantly on its own original terms. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 26, 2017
The Love Witch handily achieves its goals, employing Biller’s strong sense of retro style and Robinson’s wink-wink performance to deliver a subversive homage to a host of out-of-fashion genres. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughNov 17, 2016
Visually, it has the intense intimacy of a dream. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenNov 14, 2016
The film has an artisanal intensity that prevents it from turning into a smug and predictable exercise in political revision. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 11, 2016
The movie is relentless in how it poses questions about our culture’s way of dealing with the power of female sexuality (and it wouldn’t work without Robinson, whose appearance and performance is impeccable for the job) and acknowledges that there’s not only unease in these questions and their answers but also mordant hilarity. Read full review
85
TheWrapRobert AbeleNov 10, 2016
For fans of exquisitely conjured nostalgia, dosed liberally with a modern attitude, The Love Witch is a velvety melodramatic treat, and a real calling card for Biller’s playfully immersive gifts. Bring your gaze, whatever your gender. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJordan RuimyNov 11, 2016
Biller explores female fantasy in the most diabolical of ways imaginable and gender politics are dissected with a brutal honesty that could infuriate some feminists with its observations. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 25, 2016
It’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, in her slavish devotion to creating the world of schlocky, B-grade sex-infused horror films, she recreates the good and the bad, the latter including some boring stretches that could’ve been lost in the two-hour running time. But it’s all quite enjoyable and a knowing take on patriarchy besides. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 17, 2016
Ms. Biller’s movie, like its heroine, presents a fascinating, perfectly composed, brightly colored surface. What’s underneath is marvelously dark, like love itself. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenNov 10, 2016
Although the beguiling spell begins to wear off before reaching its full two-hour length, the film’s got style for days thanks to Biller’s affection for classic — as well as not-so-classic — cinema. Read full review
80
CineVueMartyn ConterioNov 7, 2016
Biller is an eccentric talent - always a plus in the world of film - and The Love Witch is a triumph of form and style. Read full review
80
Screen DailyKim NewmanSep 7, 2016
Though a little too languid at two hours, The Love Witch is appropriately seductive. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiNov 9, 2016
Biller infuses the film with such style, such elegance, such joie de vivre, that I had a smile on my face for the whole running time. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 30, 2016
The Love Witch is so thin that if it turned sideways it would be invisible. It’s like a Bewitched episode stretched out to two hours. But boy, is it gorgeous to look at. Read full review
75
Washington PostPat PaduaNov 17, 2016
As with giallo, The Love Witch features deliberately wooden acting, and can be a little boring at times. But it’s a stunningly photographed, fascinating reinterpretation of classic melodrama. Read full review
75
The Film StageJosh HammOct 10, 2016
Biller’s work is light on its feet, delighting in its own sensuality, basking in gorgeous colors that seem to have bled through the screen from another age, and coyly seducing the audience before hitting them over the head with a hammer. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoNov 7, 2016
The Love Witch is a seductive 60s time-capsule that calls back to the technicolor charms of early genre filmmaking. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniDec 1, 2016
At 120 minutes, The Love Witch is too long. Biller has too much material on her hands and too many non sequitur scenes. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyJul 21, 2016
The fact that the films that serve as her models often sported the same flaws doesn’t excuse this fairly poker-faced spoof’s sometimes borderline-torpid pace and disappointing fade-out. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonNov 10, 2016
The Love Witch has an air of geeky satire. The presentational acting style is so self-aware you almost expect the cast to occasionally underline a joke by turning toward the camera and winking at the audience (no one does, though). Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenNov 25, 2016
Weirdest. Feminist. Movie. Ever. Read full review
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