Victoria
Adopt Films | Release Date: October 9, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireLiz BeardsworthApr 4, 2016
So much more than a one-take gimmick movie, Victoria is a stunning cinematic achievement. Full of twists that feel authentic and believable characters, it grips from the first compelling frame to the last. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonOct 7, 2015
This sparse marvel leaves the audience rattled by how small decisions lead to big consequences. Still, you're most likely to leave the theater gushing about the cast's bravura unbroken performances. Read full review
100
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 21, 2015
Hands down one of the best films of the year, Sebastian Schipper has directed a one-shot film that is truly a captivating cinematic experience. Read full review
100
The GuardianNigel M SmithSep 11, 2015
Despite the strong performances, it’s Schipper’s single-shot conceit - and the fact that he and his team pulled it off with aplomb - that makes Victoria such a bracing triumph. While the entire enterprise is inarguably a stunt, Victoria manages to overwhelm in ways that few films do. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 9, 2015
This terrifying, seductive and adrenaline-fueled movie has found a new form of freedom for cinema. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 8, 2015
Victoria is a sensational cinematic stunt. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 8, 2015
The other remarkable aspect of Mr. Schipper’s film centers on the title character, who is played by an extraordinary Spanish actress named Laia Costa. She’s full of energy, and effortless grace. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 29, 2015
The German film Victoria gives off a lustrous intensity. Filmed all in one take in pre-dawn Berlin, the film is a technical marvel inset with small jewels. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 29, 2015
With no cutaways, the film’s story and the momentum of the unlikely robbers seems as unstoppable as the camera. The characters are confused, adrenalinized and breathless, as are you. Because the deal feels real. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 19, 2015
This first section is so charming and well-observed, and creates such real chemistry between the two terrific leads, that it's almost a shame that it's there to invest us in them just so the fast-paced genre flick to come has an anchor. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 22, 2015
Perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay Victoria is that while you go in knowing about the gimmick, it doesn’t take long for Schipper to make you forget it almost entirely. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonFeb 19, 2015
It is a testament to the immersive immediacy of Victoria that the scale of its technical achievement only really dawns on you afterwards. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 19, 2015
Audiences may come down from the high a little sooner than the film does, with the characters’ increasingly ill-considered actions testing our faith and engagements to the breaking point, but the sheer centripetal force of the film’s vigorous technique never loses its hold. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryNov 24, 2015
The acting, especially by Costa, is first rate. Exuding both a childlike openness and a tendency toward the recklessness of young adulthood, the actress backs up even her character’s most questionable choices with conviction. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 28, 2015
Victoria shows us just how real things can get in this tiny-camera/infinite filming (video) capacity era. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 22, 2015
It’s a showcase for an actress who wins us over by degrees and a reminder that there are no new stories — only fresh ways of telling them. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 15, 2015
Obviously, no one should wish all films were shot like this. But the approach suits this story and these characters, and that’s all it had to do. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 15, 2015
Here is a crime drama that punches you in the gut, full on, and dares you not to blink. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 9, 2015
The best thing about Victoria isn’t actually its technical prowess—it’s the lead performance from the mesmerizing Laia Costa as the title character. Read full review
75
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 8, 2015
This uneven but funny and engrossing drama is less about Victoria than about time itself: how it slows down in the bleary middle of the night, how it speeds up relationships between strangers when no one else is around, how capacious it is in containing the most unexpected of swerves and stumbles. Read full review
63
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeOct 8, 2015
For a long stretch this movie plays well. Quiet moments, such as when Victoria plays a piano waltz and reveals herself to have a concert-level talent, have a feel for urban yearning. Costa is appealing; it’s a pleasure to watch her brush her teeth in real time. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 8, 2015
It's a film of exceptional technical virtuosity that could have used some help in the dramatic department. Read full review
60
Screen DailyLee MarshallOct 7, 2015
It stretches character credibility, and resorts too much to criminal-underworld cliché and the driving pace of its own perpetual motion, which curiously does nothing to paper over the longueurs in certain over-stretched sequences. You come out on a high of sorts – but it soon fades. Read full review
60
CineVuePatrick GambleFeb 19, 2015
Schipper's script doesn't quite complement his technical prowess and once you peer behind the smoke and mirrors of the film's one-take gimmick the criminal-underworld lurking behind it feels trite and contrived.... Yet none of this can take away from its pure entertainment factor. An experience akin to a burst of pure adrenaline intravenously introduced to your bloodstream, Victoria remains one helluva ride. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 23, 2015
It's also exhausting, despite an engaging premise. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 8, 2015
Shooting an entire feature film continuously, without a single cut, is a dumb idea. It was a dumb idea 67 years ago, when Alfred Hitchcock attempted to create the illusion of having done so in "Rope" (hiding the necessary edits by zooming into actors’ backs), and it’s still a dumb idea today, when lightweight video cameras make the feat genuinely possible. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 7, 2015
One can chart the very moment that Victoria's existence slips out of the routine into the nightmarish, and there's no escape by temporal omission. Read full review
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