The Nightingale
IFC Films | Release Date: August 2, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Little White LiesElena LazicDec 29, 2021
In Kent’s beautifully balanced and exquisitely shot film, this is the best you can do for someone without negating their experience or agency. The Nightingale similarly does not ask its audience to identify with, root for, or relate to any of its characters. It only tells us to watch and to listen. Read full review
100
Time OutStephen GarrettJul 23, 2019
Rooted in an especially lawless moment of Australia's past, Jennifer Kent's impressive follow-up to The Babadook finds a new kind of scary. Read full review
95
TheWrapMonica CastilloAug 1, 2019
It’s a movie that viewers might find difficult to love but slow to forget. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 27, 2019
There’s a tragic, moving resonance to the film’s vision of two marginalized characters—one Black, the other a woman, both stripped of everything—finding common ground in their parallel trauma and resistance. It’s there in the scenes between Franciosi and first-time actor Ganambarr, forging empathy and a mutual respect in the fire of survival, without a hint of bathetic sentimentality. Read full review
91
The Film StageLeonardo GoiSep 12, 2018
It is as compelling and urgent as it is impossible to stomach. Read full review
90
Film ThreatNorman GidneyFeb 4, 2019
The Nightingale is another triumph for Kent. Not one to aim for more crowd-pleasing material and palatable choices, she directs this visceral and moving revenge picture with a very sure hand. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJan 31, 2019
This is a profound and difficult film, an attempt to grapple with the existence and mindless perpetuation of evil, and to suggest both the fleeting satisfaction and the eternal futility of vengeance. Nothing about it is easy, and everything it shows us matters. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 12, 2018
Kent’s elemental revenge tale attains a near-mythic grandeur over the course of its arduous, ravishing trek. Some stricter editing wouldn’t go amiss, particularly in a needlessly baggy, to-and-fro finale, but it’s a pretty magnificent mass of movie. Read full review
89
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpAug 8, 2019
This is neither a pleasant movie nor a pleasing movie, but it is made with high aesthetic value to offset its unrelenting pitilessness: It’s fastidiously constructed, as one should expect from a director of Kent’s talent, and ferociously acted by her leading trio of Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr and Sam Claflin. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleAug 7, 2019
There is a confidence and a self-assuredness on display in Kent’s second feature that was only hinted at in her first. From her unflinching examination of the dual standards for gender and ethnicity to the film’s lush compositions, The Nightingale is a tough watch, but one well worth the ugly brush with sexual violence and trauma. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 21, 2019
Though set in a real place and occurring within a historically accurate framework, The Nightingale often feels like a journey through Hell itself. It’s that punishing. That bleak. That horrific. That haunting. It’s also a powerful, gripping, masterfully filmed tale. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 13, 2019
With “The Babadook” and now The Nightingale, Kent joins the ranks of a few dozen precious filmmakers able to transport us somewhere awful and beautiful, challenging us every step of the way. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 7, 2019
The Nightingale strives to be an epic and pulls it off, even if there are one or two false summits before the final scenes. It’s painful to watch because the truth is often painful, especially when so many myths of empire have accreted around it. Read full review
88
ObserverOliver JonesJul 24, 2019
When violence does befall Clare and her family, it is far more devastating than anything she could possibly have imagined. It’s also as shocking and difficult to watch as any I have seen in a lifetime of watching violent movies. Read full review
83
IndieWireMichael NordineSep 12, 2018
Acclaimed filmmakers often face the challenge of big expectations on their second features, but Kent joins the ranks of sophomore filmmakers whose new movies expand on their debuts in startlingly ambitious ways. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 12, 2018
With all this evocative material available it’s unfortunate that Kent lavishes so much of the overgenerous runtime on repetitive and redundant plotting. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 2, 2019
It’s a punishing watch; a harrowing film which boots home its message by gouging at the vulnerable soft spots of the audience. Like the world she depicts, Kent’s storytelling shows no mercy. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 20, 2019
The intelligence of Kent’s direction and the humanity she reveals in both Clare and Billy give the film its arrowhead of power. Read full review
80
SlateInkoo KangAug 1, 2019
On American screens, at least, there is an almost shocking dearth of honest stories about European colonialism, one of the greatest forces to reshape the globe in the last half-millennium, and Kent’s humanist revisions of the rape-revenge and Western genres represents a visionary attempt to rectify this. It may not always be easy to sit through, but we’re nonetheless lucky to witness it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 1, 2019
This is a difficult movie because the questions it raises are not easy. There are sentimental and reassuring movies about vengeance, and comforting stories about the resistance to historical oppression. This isn’t one of those. You might say it’s too angry. Or too honest. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 30, 2019
Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent creates a woman’s revenge tale fueled by a righteous anger at the evil men do. There’s not a whit of audience coddling. You’ve been warned. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 15, 2019
There has been debate over the graphic depiction of violence in the film, which is sickening and unblinking. Still, the explicitness undoubtedly forces you to face the brutal trauma that was inflicted upon women in this particular time and place—indeed, has been inflicted throughout history. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerAug 7, 2019
Early scenes are unnecessarily horrific, and the final scenes falter from a disconcerting shift in tone. But this still leaves a significant stretch of beautiful acting, thoroughly engaging action and vital history lessons about the brutality on which some supposedly civil societies were built. Read full review
75
ConsequenceBlake GobleAug 5, 2019
The Nightingale has a torn – and riveting – conscience. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 2, 2019
At nearly 140 minutes, the narrative takes its time wending toward a final, inevitable confrontation, and the incidents that punctuate it can sometimes feel like singularly ugly stations of the cross to be marked off; a series of random man- and nature-made cruelties meted out without pity. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 5, 2019
The Nightingale isn’t an easy cinematic experience, but if you can handle it, it’s an unforgettable one. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 30, 2019
The movie simmers with a longing for revenge, frequently boiling over, and the foe is not just Hawkins but the colonialist order for which he stands: barbarism, thinly disguised as civilization. Many scenes feel punishingly hard to watch. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerGary ThompsonAug 15, 2019
Its purpose is to make the lives of the oppressed seem real by making their suffering real. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 7, 2019
Like “The Revenant,” The Nightingale becomes something of a slog, as Clare’s journey plods toward its maybe-inevitable end. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 2, 2019
The film is filled with brutality from start to finish, over its grueling run-time ("The Nightingale" feels much longer than it is). The Nightingale has already caused controversies at festivals, where people walked out, outraged at the multiple violent rape scenes. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeJul 29, 2019
The violence of Jennifer Kent’s film doesn’t seem to build upon its themes so much as repeat them. Read full review
60
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 12, 2018
There’s a terrific film in here somewhere, with upmarket echoes of the exploitation thriller tradition of the 70s, but it gets lost in overstatement and a surfeit of plot reversals. Read full review
60
The GuardianBen CrollSep 12, 2018
Weaving themes of colonialism and class into the broad strokes of a won’t-stop-can’t-stop revenge potboiler, the film marks a step forward for the Australian director in terms of ambition and scope. In execution, however, the songbird hits a few false notes. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 12, 2018
If The Nightingale doesn’t quite fulfill the high expectations for Kent’s sophomore feature, it still shows a director with a muscular handle on her craft, though in this case she could have used a script collaborator to address the weaknesses. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 12, 2018
As the film drifts through dream sequences and diversions, the dramatic power of the chase fizzles in the damp of the woods. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 30, 2019
It’s constructed like a meathead melodrama — though with odd, last-act dissonances that might reflect Kent’s ambivalence. Read full review
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