The Tenant
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: June 25, 1976 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
2
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Slant MagazineEd Gonzalez
Polanski brilliantly evokes an evil society’s almost supernatural ability to recognize weakness in others and to punish all that is good. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Terrifying and darkly funny. [13 Jun 2004, p.C4]
83
IndieWireMax O'Connell
The film’s thesis isn’t as clear as his earlier efforts, but it’s still a highly effective story about how the world’s insanity poisons the mind. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
it may be the director's quintessential movie. It's an exercise in urban paranoia and mental disintegration that echoes or anticipates everything from "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby" to "Bitter Moon" and "The Pianist." Read full review
80
The New York TimesVincent Canby
The film is superbly acted by Mr. Polanski, Mr. Douglas and Miss Winters, who might not be entirely convincing as a Parisian concierge in a realistic film, but who fits into this nightmare perfectly. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
A disturbing and poignant anthology of Roman Polanski's favourite, oppressive themes. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Technically, The Tenant is superb, with stunning camerawork by Sven Nykvist, an eerie score by Philippe Sarde, and thoroughly convincing performances from the entire cast. (Review of original release) Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Though the result is too slow and curious, with a weak lead performance by the writer-director, The Tenant's tone of abstracted anxiety is distinctive, and its central message, that the obnoxious define the world for everyone else, provides another tile in Polanski's career mosaic of paranoia and power brokerage. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
The end result is somewhere between Franz Kafka and William Castle, but still worth seeing.
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
A tale of a paranoid breakdown of a little bureaucratic clerk that wastes no time in trying to be clinical. It has a humorous tang, underlying the macabre. (Review of original release) Read full review
50
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Everything except the dubbing of the French supporting cast is a model of craftsmanship, but as the plot escalates into increasingly arbitrary excesses of fantasy and heads for the predictable pay-off, the movie looks more and more like a potboiler. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The Tenant's not merely bad -- it's an embarrassment. If it didn't have the Polanski trademark, we'd probably have to drive miles and miles and sit in a damp basement to see it. Read full review
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