The Rover
A24 | Release Date: June 13, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
17
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 12, 2014
There is nothing noble about Eric's mission or about the considerable violence he resorts to to get the job done, but Pearce's willingness to give him an integrity of purpose mixes well with Michôd's intense, controlled direction and his ability to blend unexpected, empathetic character moments with all the killing. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJun 10, 2014
The Rover might not be about anything at all, but the dust it stirs up sticks to you after you leave the theater. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJun 19, 2014
The Rover is a sterling example of the new Australian noir. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 23, 2014
Bleak, brutal and unrelentingly nihilist, and with only sporadic flashes of the blackest, most mordant humor to lighten the load, it feels parched, like the story has simply boiled away in the desert heat and all that’s left are its desiccated bones. In a good way. Read full review
80
TheWrapDiane GarrettJun 16, 2014
The Rover is less an allegory than a suggestion how bad things could become. It's well made, and it's disturbing, if not overly passion inducing. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 12, 2014
The Rover, is anything but lively, though it's long on menace, often violent and consistently fascinating. Read full review
80
The DissolveKeith PhippsJun 12, 2014
While Michôd never satisfactorily develops the central relationship, The Rover is still a showcase for two strong performances.
80
VarietyScott FoundasMay 23, 2014
Michod’s sophomore feature isn’t exactly something we’ve never seen before, but it has a desolate beauty all its own, and a career-redefining performance by Robert Pattinson that reveals untold depths of sensitivity and feeling in the erstwhile “Twilight” star. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2014
For most post-apocalyptic films, the nightmare is really a disguised fantasy. In Michôd's excellent The Rover, the nightmare is real. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJun 19, 2014
Guy Pearce isn’t as physically formidable as Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson in Leone’s classics, but he’s just as determined and dangerous. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 13, 2014
A bleak, brutal film; at times, its monotony can be draining. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneJun 13, 2014
Robert Pattinson's stare is almost thousand-yard enough to make the film's sense of tragedy feel downright Greek. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 12, 2014
All you really need to know is that The Rover is a modern Western that explodes the terms good and evil; that its desolation is brilliantly rendered by Michôd and cinematographer Natasha Braier; that Pearce and Pattinson are a blazing pair of opposites. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 11, 2014
At heart, The Rover is something of a buddy road movie, albeit one almost completely devoid of humor. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 11, 2014
As violent and primal as “Animal Kingdom,” but not as brisk. The film grinds to a halt in between confrontations. And those shoot-outs are simple, direct and bloody, not “staged” in the Hollywood sense. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 19, 2014
His first film, "Animal Kingdom," was a terrific examination of a low-grade crime family in Melbourne. The Rover is more ambitious but not as good. Michod's patience with scenes, while laudable, is at times too much. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 13, 2014
It’s overbaked art-pulp. You’re always thinking, What fresh horror is around the next bend? Read full review
70
SlateDan KoisJun 12, 2014
It’s a welcome sight, seeing him carry a movie again. He’s austere and fascinating in The Rover, and his seriousness of purpose undercuts any possible campiness in the film’s world-gone-wrong setting: Each scene may be more dire than the last, but we care about Pearce, so we care about the movie. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 23, 2014
Always commanding attention at the film’s center is Pearce, who, under a taciturn demeanor, gives Eric all the cold-hearted remorselessness of a classic Western or film noir anti-hero who refuses to die before exacting vengeance for an unpardonable crime. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 18, 2014
Despite not breaking any new cinematic ground. The Rover plays like a taut spellbinder. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 19, 2014
What makes The Rover more watchable than the average self-conscious genre exercise is Pearce, who exudes such weary authority and palpable vulnerability that he’s sympathetic even in the film’s most brutalizing moments. Read full review
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