War Witch
Tribeca Film | Release Date: March 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 29, 2013
Feels startlingly real and inherently relevant, a shining, sterling example of cinema at its most powerful and urgent. Read full review
91
The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinFeb 28, 2013
Blending a surrealist perspective of battle-tinged faith with the harrowing tale of one girl's resilience, the film is a laser-focused fable threatened occasionally by its drifts into character shorthand, but equaled by a wrenching lead performance by Rachel Mwanza that results in one of the finest of the year. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFeb 27, 2013
War Witch is a remarkably mature portrait that trusts its audience to have their own reactions to its material; it doesn’t yank at the heartstrings so much as expertly strum them. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 7, 2013
The powerful things we expect from War Witch are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 28, 2013
Superstition, witchcraft, exorcism, talismans that ward off evil: in this land of the supernatural, irrationality prevails. But War Witch is so cleareyed that it makes you wonder how much more irrational this world is than the so-called civilized one under its camouflage of material wealth. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 28, 2013
War Witch deals with a reality so horrific that the film’s touches of magical realism are welcome, even necessary — the only way to retain one’s bearings and sanity in a world without signposts. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. MusettoFeb 28, 2013
Brutality and tenderness are a potent mix in War Witch. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMar 28, 2013
Nguyen reportedly worked on War Witch for a decade, and it shows in both the immediacy and authenticity of his tale, and the meticulous craft with which it's told. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 8, 2013
War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head. When she says that, in order to survive in the rebel camp, she “had to learn to make the tears go inside my eyes,” our identification with her is total. Read full review
83
Film.comJordan HoffmanFeb 27, 2013
It does a marvelous job at giving us an impressionistic taste of horrific circumstances without using them to beat us into submission. Read full review
80
Village VoiceZachary WigonFeb 26, 2013
Nguyen's matter-of-fact storytelling proves to be the right match for a life of extraordinary suffering. In art, lives like Komona's are all too often given an alien sheen. Here, they feel unnervingly plausible. Read full review
80
Time OutSam AdamsFeb 26, 2013
The film’s subject is almost too horrible to contemplate, but it finds a way to space out the blows without softening them. Read full review
80
VarietyLeslie FelperinFeb 22, 2013
Along with the moral lesson, Nguyen remembers to give auds some pleasures, including the exquisitely chosen soundtrack of African folk and pop music, Nicolas Bolduc's cinematography and the very artful use of sound throughout. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Guy DixonFeb 22, 2013
So is this a Western take on Africa? Yes, but Rebelle is full of such careful detail, and is carried so beautifully by Mwanza’s performance, that questions of authenticity slide away. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungFeb 22, 2013
Managing to be neither sentimental nor sensationalistic, the film tells its story from the heart, and from the simple, straightforward viewpoint of young heroine Komona, warmly played by the talented Rachel Mwanza in her screen debut. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCalum MarshFeb 28, 2013
Though ostensibly a character study, it's nevertheless characterized by the vaguely moralizing tone of an issue film, one whose candor in the face of brutality seems calculated for maximum liberal appeal. Read full review
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