The Tale of King Crab
Oscilloscope Laboratories | Release Date: April 15, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMar 24, 2022
A rare and elusive sense of myth is captured in The Tale of King Crab. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiApr 15, 2022
This Italian import's title may make it sound like either a kids movie or a cooking documentary, but it proves to be a wild and compelling work that simultaneously evokes the influence of such disparate filmmakers as Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, and Sergio Leone (not to mention a dash of “Broadway Danny Rose”-era Woody Allen) while still coming across as a fresh and unique cinematic vision. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 30, 2022
An intimate piece of romantic folklore with breathtaking geographical ambition, The Tale of the King Crab comes to theaters feeling familiar, but startling in what it shows us and where it takes us. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 29, 2022
There are times when The Tale of King Crab seems like it could have been made in the silent era, so dedicated are Rigo de Righi and Zoppis to the simple, dramatic power of what they choose to show us. Their characters search for love, justice and gold while the filmmakers make clear what they treasure: ageless tales like these. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 15, 2022
It’s an old-fashioned literary fable, spiked with shots of grimacing men with sunburned faces blasting one another with shotguns that wouldn’t be out of place in a Sergio Leone movie. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyApr 14, 2022
The movie’s depictions of landscapes both sere and fertile, and its all-but-palpable portrayals of isolation, have echoes of the best work of Werner Herzog and Lucrecia Martel. But de Righi and Zoppis here show more genuine affinity than affected influence; they’re moviemakers worth keeping an eye on. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan HollandMar 24, 2022
Watching The Tale Of King Crab feels like watching the stories on which all later stories have been based. You also get brooding intensity and slippery, dreamlike atmospherics and dialogues that strip things back to their essentials. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineCarson LundApr 19, 2022
A film that so clearly takes delight in the unfolding of a story and the unpacking of an enigmatic character is refreshing in an arthouse landscape where such narrative qualities are often relegated to secondary concerns. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 28, 2022
By turns beautiful and ugly, occasionally infuriating in its obfuscation and disconnect, always slow and intriguing, King Crab is powered by the wild-eyed and soft-spoken charisma of Silli as the instinctually rebellious and disdainful Luciano. Read full review
67
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 30, 2021
The Tale of King Crab is an engrossing, if slight riff on 1970s foreign arthouse classics — though not quite as spellbinding as its forebears, despite a bifurcated structure that makes for two occasionally tantalizing films in one. Read full review
60
Screen RantNadir SamaraApr 22, 2022
The Tale Of King Crab doesn’t keep one's attention at first, but if the audience can make it past the period piece there is a thought-provoking western on the other end. Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeApr 18, 2022
What first-time feature directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis seem to be going for here is a Herzogian waking nightmare, but the necessary sense of horror and despair never fully comes off. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 24, 2022
The Tale of King Crab strains mightily for a poetic quality that it never quite achieves. Read full review
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