The Sweet East
| Release Date: December 1, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossMay 23, 2023
Shot in a way reminiscent of classic ’70s cinema while commenting on the woes of the contemporary, Williams builds a timely film that still feels timeless, an expansive chronicling of a slice of America ripe for many a rewatch. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 23, 2023
Railing against conventions has the potential to become conventional after a while, and the film eventually suffers from a case of diminishing returns, but there’s more than enough to warrant such lulls. And of course Williams ends it with a lot of swagger. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeApr 17, 2024
There is a sense here not just of Vietnam-era experimental cinema but of contemporaneous postmodern novels by the likes of Thomas Pynchon and the recently late John Barth. Smart and dumb. Fascinating and frustrating. An absolute blast. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsMar 26, 2024
The Sweet East takes an admirably measured look at societal fracture in the modern age, and its use of arch provocation becomes a device to represent a highly recognisable vernacular of despair, where obscenity (both verbal and corporeal) is the only language that cuts through the chaff. Read full review
80
VarietyCatherine BrayMay 23, 2023
The film is intriguingly anthropological in its take on America as a subject, viewed less through the prism of what American might signify as a nation, than how America might feel as an experience — there’s a sense of disintegration and incipient violence seeping through everything, which occasionally explodes to entertaining effect, but there’s clearly deep affection there too. Read full review
80
SlashfilmLex BriscusoMay 23, 2023
Overall, the film is on point with its incredibly smart casting, and that victory aids in fully shaping the world Price Williams and Pinkerton concocted in their zany witch's cauldron. Read full review
75
ObserverLaura BabiakDec 1, 2023
It all combines to make for quite the adventure, enjoyably uncanny if overly broad. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerSep 28, 2023
I found myself oscillating between being impressed by The Sweet East and feeling like it was trying very hard to impress me. And it did, though probably less than it intended. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaNov 30, 2023
Maybe it’s low hanging fruit that the white supremacist character is the best comic fodder, but the film’s trolling is stranger and more esoterically inclined than its selection of political punching bags would seem to warrant. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 23, 2023
This is a fun — and sometimes very funny — movie that is virtually impossible to make fun of in return, and at the end of the day, that might be the only metric of success that matters to it. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comNick AllenDec 4, 2023
It’s a well-made, purposefully ugly treatise of America as a broken-down theme park. But its charm wanes whenever it’s just not as funny, smart, or edgy as it thinks. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 2, 2024
For all its to-the-moment social commentary, the film has roots in the anarchistic, surrealist 60s: Lillian could be a direct descendant of minxy troublemakers Marie I and Marie II from Věra Chytilová’s Daisies, reimagined for the TikTok generation. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 29, 2024
This defiantly blank canvas may strike you as a puzzling, even a dubious, heroine, but Ryder’s terrific. And at least she has the last laugh: no one can get their graffiti to stick. Read full review
60
The GuardianLeslie FelperinMar 27, 2024
The section where Lillian tumbles down a film-making rabbit hole is by far the most amusing. Read full review
60
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonMay 30, 2023
If nothing else, it's best to walk into Sean Price Williams’ feature debut, The Sweet East, as a satire decorated with light political and human commentary and wild excitement that never lets up. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 23, 2023
Talia Ryder gives a magnetic performance, providing an anchor for a film that is amusing and electric but mostly uneven. Read full review
50
ColliderChase HutchinsonFeb 27, 2024
The Sweet East ends up saying quite a bit, though little leaves any real impression. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 5, 2023
Large in conception, it comes across as small of spirit, cramped in its sympathies and crabby in its attitudes. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeMay 23, 2023
The Sweet East provides easy jabs and the occasional laugh, but never seems to figure out what it wants to say. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineKyle TurnerSep 27, 2023
Sean Price Williams’s solo feature directorial debut is pretty fuzzy on what it wants its national tour of brainless dogma to mean. Read full review
More From This Movie

62 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL