The Outrun
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 4, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 7, 2024
Few movies about getting sober are as brilliant at conveying the allure of drowning, wallowing in alcohol, the emotional and physical liberation it seems to offer, as The Outrun. And rare is the story told within this most personal of experiences that exults in its trials, the gut check of “one day at a time” and the exultant release from the trap of addiction. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyOct 4, 2024
It’s a gorgeous artifact and a cinematic experiment that works beautifully, one innovative frame at a time, centered on Ronan’s soaring and soul-restoring performance. Read full review
100
Original-CinLiz BraunOct 3, 2024
It’s not accurate to say the film stars Saoirse Ronan. Saoirse Ronan is the movie, the luminous north star of every scene. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 3, 2024
Picture scenes of excess followed by degradation, shame, teary promises of “never again,” resolve to start anew. Then the record skips and we’re right back to the beginning of the song, and it doesn’t sound any better on repeat listen. The Outrun hits similar beats, yet manages to do so in ways that feel novel at first, and ultimately transcendent. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 8, 2024
The Outrun avoids pretentiousness and the emotional stakes are so high that it doesn’t threaten to become boring. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 22, 2024
Fingscheidt’s nonlinear approach allows the film to ride the tidal rhythms of addiction, while Ronan’s committed performance churns those ebbs and flows into a widescreen journey that earns its epic backdrop. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 16, 2024
The Outrun’s true tether, however, is Ronan, and here she works to all her greatest strengths. The film wraps entirely around her, yet she’s far too honest an actor to ever play up to the audience’s expectations of a woman in crisis. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgOct 11, 2024
If you’ve ever had a friend or family struggle with an addiction, you know that nothing you say or do will change their ways. It seems to always happen at their rock bottom. Nora Fingscheidt’s feature, The Outrun, starts at the bottom. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 3, 2024
There is an honesty in this performance, a genuineness that really elevates the film. It’s not always easy to watch, and it’s certainly not a lot of fun. But it is impressive, and that’s what carries it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonOct 3, 2024
The movie gets dangerously close to being overwrought. But Ronan’s restraint keeps it truthful, even when she’s screaming, or crying, or blacking out. In the end, it mostly aches, and aches, and aches. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 29, 2024
The intelligence and craft of the film-making, the way Fingscheidt guides us along the emotional journey of the central character, is absorbing. Read full review
80
iFrancesca SteeleSep 27, 2024
Ronan’s performance holds our attention. She is astonishing in this role, able to harness both fragility and determination in equal measure. She dances alone as if exorcising demons from her body, pretends to conduct waves on the beach with unparalleled joy. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 27, 2024
In every shot and every scene, mostly in closeup, Ronan carries the film with her unselfconsciously fierce and focused presence. Read full review
80
Little White LiesKatherine McLaughlinSep 26, 2024
What translates well from the novel is the specificity of the setting. All the details about birds, nature and Celtic mythology of the islands are either narrated by a spellbinding Ronan or portrayed creatively through animation. Fingscheidt also balances the cliché associated with films about addiction with humour and magnificent detail. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 25, 2024
You couldn’t sincerely argue that The Outrun brims over with plot, but its rough, maritime texture is never less than diverting. It needles. It provokes. Read full review
80
Total FilmAnna SmithAug 16, 2024
Nora Fingscheidt (System Crasher) directs with a slow and steady hand, taking time to explore both Rona’s moments of solitude and those in which she encounters others. Read full review
80
Time OutStephen A. RussellFeb 22, 2024
The Outrun is adapted by Scottish journalist Amy Liptrot from her own searingly honest memoir, with German director Nora Fingscheidt as co-writer. Fingscheidt handles her true-life traumas with great care, but without sparing us any of the harsh realities of recovery. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 22, 2024
Even when the film risks becoming overly precious, Ronan keeps Rona’s struggles gripping. It is a tale not so much of triumph as one of melancholy resilience. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJan 22, 2024
Those in recovery, and those close to someone who is, ought to find something nourishing in The Outrun, a stirring reminder of the human capacity to regroup, to accept a bitter past and anticipate a better future. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 22, 2024
The film is, first and foremost, a visual and sonic experience. We can lose ourselves in it. I think we’re meant to. Read full review
80
The GuardianAdrian HortonJan 22, 2024
The Outrun is the rare two-hour movie that made me forget to check the time. That it does so while avoiding the many cliches of the cinematic memoir adaptation . . . is its own achievement, a testament to the source material and Ronan’s tremendous performance. Read full review
75
Washington PostTy BurrOct 4, 2024
The Outrun is a recovery drama lifted above the genre’s necessary clichés by the star’s prickly, incandescent presence. It’s also boosted by the film’s setting in the stark Orkney Isles in the north of Scotland and by Fingscheidt’s poetic approach to time, place and chronology. Read full review
75
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 4, 2024
Is that really Saoirse Ronan playing a blackout drunk with a violent temper? It is and against all odds she transforms this often dreary addiction drama on the strength of an emotional powerhouse of a performance that should rank her high in the Oscar race for Best Actress. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 3, 2024
Saoirse Ronan does subtly spectacular work in every phase of this character’s odyssey. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckOct 2, 2024
[Ronan] gives one of her finest performances in a two-hour study of addiction that is poignant, sometimes beautiful but always painful to watch — and would likely be too draining if not for the luminous presence at its core. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerSep 1, 2024
Without Ronan's towering talent, The Outrun could easily be a trite addiction drama. But Ronan, cast against the backdrop of the sublime, evocative Orkney Island landscapes, elevates the film to a moving tale of overcoming one's demons and learning to savor life as it comes. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRoss McIndoeAug 19, 2024
With The Outrun’s neat but poignant metaphor work in mind, mental illness and addiction are understood as natural responses to the conditions of a ravaged life. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 23, 2024
It is a phenomenal showcase for Ronan, who dares to be unlikable for the rare time in her career. Her natural charm and whimsy we’re used to from “Lady Bird” and “Little Women” is but a glimmer in Rona’s eye — and that little light is why the viewer roots for this troubled woman as hard as they do. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMarco Vito OddoOct 7, 2024
While still a fascinating filmmaking exercise, this is, unfortunately, one of those movies you can recommend to everyone. Still, The Outrun is a vehicle for Ronan’s talent, with her driving fast towards awards season. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 4, 2024
This is a story about a seemingly unforgiving landscape that’s actually giving back every minute, once Rona reopens herself to its windswept language. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 22, 2024
The Outrun — the title refers to tracts of outlying grazing land on arable farms — is slightly overlong and at times feels cluttered. But it depicts the protagonist’s brutal struggle with enough distinctive elements — in every sense of the word — to make it more than just another draining addiction story. Read full review
70
ColliderRoss BonaimeJan 22, 2024
Director Nora Fingscheidt adapts Amy Liptrop’s memoir of the same name like a master conductor, melding the past and present expertly to create a staggering look at addiction through a magnificent performance by Ronan. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 22, 2024
The Outrun begins and ends with Ronan. There are very few moments in the movie where she isn’t on screen, and to say she’s up for the challenge is an understatement. It’s a very strong performance and, somewhat impressively, not as showy as you might expect given the material. Read full review
67
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 22, 2024
Though there may be too much here, plenty of it’s compelling and important. The Outrun is undoubtedly a hard sit, but Ronan serves as a superb vessel through choppy waters. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 4, 2024
Ronan can’t save The Outrun from its limitations as a drama, or from its worst stack-the-deck instincts. But she does lift this film up and infuse the storytelling with a genuine sense of what it means to try living one day at a time for the rest of one’s life. Read full review
60
EmpireLaura VenningSep 26, 2024
Although sometimes baggy and uncontrolled, The Outrun is a sensitive, non-judgemental portrayal of addiction and mental illness, anchored by a typically transcendent performance from Saoirse Ronan. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 19, 2024
These relationships are poised to be explored in more depth than they are. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 2, 2024
With a powerful central performance and an occasionally chaotic but nonetheless captivating and moving narrative — helped along by fantastic editing and cinematography — The Outrun is a detailed film strengthened by its connection to nature’s beauty and belonging to it. Read full review
55
TheWrapLex BriscusoJan 22, 2024
It’s a bit muddled in execution, but despite its faults, the film is visually ambitious with things to say hidden under the surface. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyOct 9, 2024
The movie tells an admirable and moving story about a woman overcoming her troubles, but it arouses no aesthetic interest, no sense of discovery in real time, no sense of creative risk. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 9, 2024
The problem is that Ronan is also forging her compelling warts-and-all portrait of obliteration and recovery in another type of gale storm, that of undisciplined filmmaking at odds with the patient harvesting of characterization. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonOct 3, 2024
Ultimately, it is Ronan who transcends the material and almost wills “The Outrun” into something more than the sum of its parts. Her Rona is tempestuous and passionate, and soon discovers that to master herself she must surrender to nature. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 2, 2024
On its own unvarnished, metaphoric, diary-of-destruction-and-renewal terms, The Outrun is competent and even stylishly made, yet I have to confess: I found the movie overwhelmingly drab. Read full review
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