Tigers Are Not Afraid
Videocine | Release Date: August 23, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ConsequenceScout TafoyaAug 29, 2019
The film is replete with unforgettable images, stellar performances all up and down the cast, and genuinely original and thoughtful revisions of expected tropes. Read full review
95
TheWrapMonica CastilloAug 20, 2019
Once the spell of Tigers Are Not Afraid ends and the credits roll, its story lingers in the air. It’s a story of sadness, loss and survival, a fairy tale tailor-made for our anxious times. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSep 5, 2019
A sublime mixture of dark social realism and magical fantasy – social magical realism, if such a subgenre exists. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 21, 2019
The filmmaker has such a strong command of mood, character and performances – especially impressive given the age of her cast – that her world quickly, seductively overwhelms. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekAug 22, 2019
An emotionally moving thriller that smoothly negotiates the horrors of the supernatural and real world evil with haunting imagery and tension. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJul 29, 2019
The Tigers’ rooftop hideout is like something out of Hook, and the film moves along at a brisk, Spielbergian clip; however, the combination of dark themes mixed with whimsical fantasy strikes a tone more similar to Guillermo del Toro’s early work. Read full review
83
The Film StageJared MobarakJul 29, 2019
López’s fairy tale is one seeking to remind us of an innocence not yet stripped clean. Read full review
82
The VergeCaroline SiedeSep 5, 2019
It’s visceral in its grim realism, yet it’s also poignant and cathartic in its use of the fantastical. Above all, it’s a reminder of how genre storytelling can provide real-world social commentary, not just breezy escapism. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 22, 2019
Director Lopez offers no more lightheartedness than the film absolutely needs to show that their spirits haven't been crushed by squalor; meanwhile, her effects artists use mostly excellent CG to slowly hint at how interested the world of the dead is in Estrella's predicament. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 22, 2019
It is by turns harrowing, affecting, unexpectedly funny, truly scary and fantastical. (The cinematographer was Juan Jose Saravia.) The fantasy grows overlush from time to time, but Ms. López has created an original work of art in genre disguise. Read full review
80
Village VoiceApril WolfeJul 29, 2019
By telling this story through the children’s eyes with a magical-realism element, López makes the tragically unthinkable somehow more palatable. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBobby LePireJul 29, 2019
Tigers Are Not Afraid isn’t quite the masterful dark fairy tale it aspires to be. The humor is entirely unnecessary and tonally misplaced. But what it gets right, it does brilliantly. The acting is superb, the mix of fantasy and realistic drama is sublime, and the story is haunting and fascinating in equal measure. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 4, 2019
Call it Buñuel meets Blumhouse, a film that is flawed but so full of ideas that it doesn’t matter. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoAug 23, 2019
At its best, López’s movie has that del Toro signature style, and she also proves herself a deft director of children, another element she shares in common with the Oscar winner. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 26, 2019
This mixture of poverty and fantasy will not be for everyone. Compare the angry reaction to Buñuel’s “Los Olvidados,” when it came out, in 1950; not content with revealing the plight of destitute children, in Mexico City, Buñuel had the temerity to swerve into nightmare. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 21, 2019
The emotion and the horror might have taken still deeper root if the world of the movie felt less hectic and more coherently realized, if the supernatural touches and occasional jump scares welled up organically from within rather than feeling smeared on with a digital trowel. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 20, 2019
Thematically underdeveloped yet pleasingly creepy, Tigers Are Not Afraid balances its mild terrors with appealing moments of childish creativity. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanSep 10, 2019
López elicits solid performances from the young actors, and her vision is clear and uncompromising. It isn’t always obvious, however, what the moral of this story is. There’s an air of wishful thinking to the way things work out, even if a traditional happy ending is elusive. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 23, 2019
For a film bursting with so many ideas, only a fraction of them seem to work. And yet, as an artistic statement, “Tigers” proves as fearless as its kid characters, and an indicator of incredible things to come from its creator. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezAug 17, 2019
It never resolves its commingling of the fanciful and the mundane into a particularly coherent argument about the legacy of trauma. Read full review
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