The Tribe
Drafthouse Films | Release Date: June 17, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJul 9, 2015
The Tribe is that rare breed of film so masterful in execution it requires watching once, yet so devastating you may never be able to stomach seeing it again. Read full review
100
NPRBob MondelloJun 17, 2015
By the end, The Tribe has revealed itself as so original, and so chilling, it's likely to leave you speechless. Read full review
100
HitfixDrew McWeenyNov 10, 2014
This is brutally strong filmmaking, aggressive and alive and impeccably accomplished. Read full review
100
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 10, 2014
Slaboshpitsky's The Tribe is gripping, tour de force cinema from its opening jab, and from there it continually forces you against the ropes before delivering a knockout punch with a gut-wrenching conclusion destined to leave audiences stunned. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangJul 14, 2014
The actions and events are naked to our eyes, not couched in reasons and justifications, not softened by explanations, by words. Read full review
100
VarietyJustin ChangJul 14, 2014
Sans dialogue or translation, each interaction effectively becomes a puzzle to be solved, and Slaboshpytskiy is brilliant at using ambiguity to heighten rather than dull the viewer’s perceptions. Even when the meaning of a particular exchange eludes us, a greater sense of narrative comprehension begins to take hold. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnJul 14, 2014
From one mesmerizing scene to the next, The Tribe never loses its flow. Even its harshest moments are defined by vibrant motion. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJun 25, 2015
Slaboshpytskiy has made one of the most unusual and disturbing films about criminality of the new century. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 25, 2015
The Tribe is one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen. It may also be among the most memorable — not only for its pitch-black view of human nature, but for the devilishly instructive way in which it turns the tables on us. As we watch in anxious confusion, it’s as if we are profoundly deaf, trying to understand what’s going on and striving to break out of isolation. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJul 14, 2014
The use of sign language, deafness and silence itself adds several heady new ingredients to the base material, alchemically creating something rich, strange and very original. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJul 8, 2015
Uncompromising and supremely controlled, it is a demanding film that will leave you shaken and shattered. How’s that for hyperbolic? Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 22, 2015
The Tribe is a harrowing, corrosive film, but there’s great, urgent beauty in it. Read full review
80
Time OutDave CalhounJun 19, 2015
The film must come with several warnings. It’s extremely disturbing at points (there’s a horrific backstreet abortion scene), and the silence itself—actually, the nonspeaking, atmospheric sound takes on a life of its own—is hard work, meaning that you have to let whole swathes of story wash over you. But those same obstacles also give this strange story a deeply original, hallucinatory power. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasJun 16, 2015
If there’s anything worth extrapolating from The Tribe, it isn’t the deaf experience so much as recognizing our own tendencies to conform to certain unspoken laws. The more insular a society, the more severe the consequences of rebellion. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJun 15, 2015
What fleshes out the movie, and lends it such an extraordinary pulse of life, is the want of words. Read full review
80
The TelegraphMike McCahillMay 14, 2015
You emerge from this brutally unsentimental education with your chest pounding and your ears ringing – its radical empathy extends to putting us in not just the same room as its subjects, but the same helpless, despairing position. Some films are made to leave you speechless; for some experiences, there can be no words. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyMay 12, 2015
Original, engrossing and extremely confrontational, The Tribe treads the dark path between misery porn and masterpiece. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jun 17, 2015
One reason that The Tribe “works” is that it presents a story so simple and familiar, so cliché even, that one doesn’t need to understand what the actors are saying to follow along. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 16, 2015
The Tribe deploys an elaborate, rigorously executed conceit in support of a weary, dreary hypothesis: People are awful. That might well be true, but there’s no need to shout. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJul 17, 2015
A stunning examination of teenage cruelty, exploitation, and crime that refuses to give us the satisfaction of identifying with the characters. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 10, 2015
What makes The Tribe unforgettable is the filmmaker’s attention to composition and staging, with camera work by cinematographer Valentyn Vasyanovych that goes from implacable stasis to poetic fluidity with seamless, expressive ease. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 31, 2015
It's a difficult watch, with its scenes of robbery, rape, murder and assorted other personal assaults, as well as a downright agonizing portrayal of an abortion procedure. This is not a story of hope or of redemption. It is a story of cruelty and despair. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJun 17, 2015
It's a staggering film, but not a brilliant one — a superior version would have played more with the gulf between our senses and theirs. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 26, 2015
Slaboshpytskiy doesn’t attempt to get inside the psychology of these people, or expand the meanings, political or otherwise, of their descent. There’s a stolidity to the filmmaking, with lots of overlong takes, that is meant to be ruminative but often just seems negligent. Read full review
50
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeJun 17, 2015
The swooping shots and the way the lack of dialogue amplifies ambient sounds are stunning. Story-wise, The Tribe is yet another art-film wallow in cruelty, not nearly as unique as its looks and its world. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaJun 18, 2015
The Tribe would be a hopelessly banal arthouse wallow were it not for its setting: a school for the deaf. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneMar 18, 2015
The film is more interested in performance and symbolism than in the meaning of its characters' words or their substitutive gestures. Read full review
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