The Settlers
MUBI | Release Date: January 12, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistCarlos AguilarMay 26, 2023
Its unflinching depiction of the brutal genocide of the Selk’nam people intermingles with pointed contempt for the egotistical yet pathetic colonists. Read full review
91
IndieWireChristian BlauveltMay 26, 2023
It’s one of the most chilling art-Westerns to come along in some time, as provocative for its ideas, dialogue, and characterizations, as for the beauty of its empty landscapes. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 11, 2024
Gálvez’s work here is by turns blunt and subtle, and very assured. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJan 12, 2024
The Settlers is not just an account of historical events, it's a national reckoning with a barbaric past. The fact that The Settlers is shot with such piercing beauty intensifies its message. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 3, 2023
The film is a blistering laceration of the contradictions and hypocrisies of European racism. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 11, 2024
Not everything in this Leone-inspired Latino western hits its target, but the picture has a venomous bite, and a smart, slippery final scene that turns the lens back on to the act of film-making, questioning cinema’s role in (mis)shaping the way we view history. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 9, 2024
The writer-director and his cinematographer, Simone D’Arcangelo, evoke spaghetti westerns with wide-angle vistas of forbidding horizons. Odd moments of Quentin Tarantino-style playfulness add to the unease. The perverse, atonal effect is as discombobulating as Harry Allouche’s plucked, appositely bleak score. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 7, 2024
It’s a fierce, stark, almost primitive parable of cruelty and power. Read full review
80
ColliderChase HutchinsonJan 12, 2024
The Settlers' is a beautiful yet brutal look at historical violence and the lasting impact it has on all who come into contact with it. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineElijah GonzalezJan 8, 2024
In its unflinching portrayal of historical massacres perpetrated against the Ona tribes of South America, it presents obfuscated truths about colonial atrocities, using its austere direction and sun-bleached color palette to firmly place us in the middle of man-made horrors. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 26, 2023
While its stylings are purposely retro, its aims are very much of the here and now. This is a film that digs deep into Chile’s colonial past — especially during a closing section that transforms the story into one of historical reckoning. Read full review
75
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 19, 2024
Compellingly artful if dramatically blunt, The Settlers is Chile’s entry into the best International picture Oscar race, a kind of Western that critiques the reasons for the genre. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 18, 2023
It’s an engrossing story, even at its most gruesome or theatrical. For my money, it’s more satisfying, cinematic, exotic and allegorical than the thematically and historically similar “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Read full review
75
ObserverLaura BabiakOct 3, 2023
A brutal, chilling indictment of capitalist colonialism, The Settlers mixes shocking violence with acute apathy. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupMay 26, 2023
While spare early passages are narratively opaque and formally ornate to a distancing fault, the riveting second half––including a chilling reckoning with others occupying the desolate land and a well-executed structural gamble––brings profound expansion to this chilling story of atrocity. Read full review
70
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsFeb 9, 2024
This is the western as a dried, coruscating corpse, left out for the buzzards to feed on. Read full review
70
IGNA.A. Dowd Jan 18, 2024
This grim, acclaimed Chilean Western will dazzle your eyes, even as it crushes your spirit with its true story of genocide. Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 26, 2023
The Settlers shows promise: it’s the work of a daring director intent on developing a distinctive and original voice. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesJan 11, 2024
Torn between Tarantino-esque genre pastiche and stilted art-film seriousness, The Settlers is at once unsettling and tonally unsettled. The result is a muddled study of brutal history. Read full review
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