Wendy
Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: February 28, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
20
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TheWrapSteve PondJan 28, 2020
Zeitlin has come up with a second film that goes down many of the same paths as his debut, another film filled with kids rampaging as the music swells — but he puts it on a mythic stage and creates a film that is magical and messy, unruly and otherworldly. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiFeb 27, 2020
What a gift Zeitlin has with children. He showed that special skill with “Beasts,” but does even more so here, with the kid ensemble being full of personality and entirely unrestrained. The freedom and unbridled joy they find on the island are infectious, like their movie. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 27, 2020
What you take away from Wendy, however, is that Zeitlin’s talent to soar cinematically remains intact. He can transport you to a fantastical world without the benefit of massive CG effects or a massive set on a gigantic soundstage. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 27, 2020
Wendy doesn’t take the appeal of “Beasts” in a new direction, but it clarifies its strongest qualities. Zeitlin’s roving narrative techniques may have their limitations, but this spellbinding followup proves they still have juice. Everyone grows up, but the “Beasts” formula has yet to grow old. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinAug 13, 2021
A new take on Peter Pan that actually works, delivering all the visual richness you’d hope for from the film-maker behind Beasts Of The Southern Wild. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyAug 13, 2021
The idiosyncratic Beasts of the Southern Wild is a tough act to follow, but Wendy’s similarly anthropological approach reinvigorates its overworked source material where others have floundered. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 27, 2020
Wendy in every way feels like a handmade, one-of-a-kind, exceptionally fresh and — one hesitates to use the word — organic piece of work that quite quickly imparts a desire to see it again. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMar 4, 2020
The magic of this Neverland is knowing we just have to believe and we will always be able to fly. Read full review
67
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJan 28, 2020
Whether you like Wendy will depend almost entirely on your continued tolerance for the baby-Malick stirrings of Zeitlin’s style: roving, evocative camerawork; the unpolished roughness of unknown child performers; treacly sentiment pouring from each horn blast of Romer’s score; or France’s storybook narration. At nearly two hours, that’s a lot of syrup to pour down your throat, and the unapologetic mawkishness of it all can rankle after a while, even if you’re attuned to the film’s wavelength. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJan 27, 2020
Zeitlin has a gift for casting vivid new talent, and for creating images that read like fevered visual poetry: gorgeously saturated tableaus of the natural world, all luminous light and color. But he also tends to strip away nearly every necessary aspect of plot and character development in his strenuous pursuit of whimsy. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMar 5, 2020
Wendy, director Benh Zeitlin’s follow-up film, works too—but just barely. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 4, 2020
Wendy feels like a holding maneuver — a way for a gifted young storyteller to keep one foot in the innocence of childhood while figuring what he’s really going to do next. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrFeb 26, 2020
It’s so sincere that it’s hard to pick on Wendy for some wheel-spinning, or even the sullen whimsy of it all. It’s headed somewhere good and worthwhile: This ending could warm the hearts of even the most grown up grown-ups in the audience. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 5, 2020
It is a movie of magic and (sometimes) messy messaging, of carefree play with never a worry about meals or tetanus shots — a lot like Beasts of the Southern Wild. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 13, 2021
The engagement with JM Barrie’s themes here is palpably sincere, and I found myself pulled along, not only by Zeitlin’s tugging showmanship, but the ache he manages to create around childhood as an enchanted space. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicGarrett MitchellMar 5, 2020
Wendy is not glossy by any means but it feels like an escape from the soulless live-action Disney remakes audiences have become accustomed to. Read full review
60
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJan 29, 2020
Wendy should not be written-off entirely, and younger audiences may be taken with the movie’s sugar-rush charms. But in the end, there’s not enough fairy dust in the world to make Wendy fly. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 27, 2020
Wendy casts a powerful spell — the movie has the potency of a dusty folktale brought to vivid life — but it can be frustrating that Zeitlin doesn’t have much interesting to say beyond his stylistic flourishes and evocative atmosphere. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 5, 2020
Yet after half an hour in Wendy’s world, it is clear that Zeitlin has exhausted both his visual imagination and whatever narrative interest he had in Barrie’s tale other than “kids, they grow up fast.” Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 3, 2020
That’s the real, and somewhat obvious, lesson here, in a lovely yet flawed confection that might be summed up by two words: beautiful nonsense. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 27, 2020
Wendy has her moments, certainly, but she remains frustratingly undeveloped and uninvolving, despite the clamor and the score’s triumphalism. Read full review
50
VoxAlissa WilkinsonFeb 27, 2020
On a number of occasions, the film veers close to succeeding. At times it’s evocative and touching. But it’s also heaped high with ideas about the magic of stories and the importance of recapturing your sense of wonder, which don’t really add up to much in the end. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 27, 2020
Your wandering attention may begin to fixate on other deficiencies: the flimsiness of the narrative scaffolding, the thinness of the characterizations and the filmmakers’ tendency to mistake platitudes for poetry. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 27, 2020
The style is immersive, meant to envelop us and bring us into the story, but it ends up making the movie feel abstract and distant. And there’s a void at the center. Read full review
50
IGNRosie KnightFeb 27, 2020
Though Benh Zeitlin clearly has a knack for directing children and an eye for shooting beautiful locales, Wendy ultimately falls flat. The pacing is uneven, the overt messaging spirals from hamfisted to uncomprehensible, and as good as the children at its core are, the film never offers up a story or film that is deserving of them. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 26, 2020
The Zeitlins have dreamed since childhood of bringing their version of "Peter Pan" to the screen. Their collective imaginative powers are indisputable. But what started as a visually gripping, fiercely funny, and emotionally centered take on Wendy’s mission statement (“The more you grow up, the less things you get to do that you wanna”) ends in a chaotic clutter that deserves, well, the hook. Read full review
50
SlateDan KoisFeb 25, 2020
Wendy recognizably reflects Zeitlin’s vision; it’s less a follow-up to "Beasts" than a kind of echo of it. The mistakes the movie makes, and the ways it fails to fulfill its predecessor’s promise, make me want to say something critics rarely express: I wish that the studio had meddled a little bit more. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithFeb 23, 2020
Wendy veers awkwardly and aimlessly between tragedy and jubilance, never accruing any lasting emotional impact. Read full review
50
Film ThreatAlan NgFeb 1, 2020
There were many aspects from a filmmaking and storytelling process that I found admirable, but I just can’t see myself recommending it. I know all too well that my criticisms have everything to do with the very core of J.M. Barrie’s original story and Pan mythology itself. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJan 27, 2020
Wendy is a repetitive, shallow film, a children’s fable that means way more to the child who dreamed it up than it will to you. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 27, 2020
It suggests that Zeitlin, throwing more handfuls of fairy dust over an impoverished American South, is something of a lost boy himself. Like Pan and his posse, he stubbornly refuses to grow. Read full review
40
Time OutZachary ShevichJan 31, 2020
It’s a stylistic flair that looks impressive at first, but the more Zeitlin returns to his same tricks, the more tedious it all becomes. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 27, 2020
What felt so revolutionary in 2012 is no less visionary today, but packs a disappointing sense of familiarity this time around, like tearing open your Christmas presents to find … a huge stack of hand-me-down clothing. Or else, like watching a magic trick performed a second time from a different angle. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 27, 2020
Wendy is undoubtedly self-assured and in-your-face, and the gorgeous location photography certainly has an impact. But it’s wrecked by chapters so lengthy they become simply excruciating. Read full review
35
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 26, 2020
The effort it must have taken to create this movie is apparent in every frame, but that doesn’t mean it’s watchable. Read full review
33
The Film StageMatt CipollaJan 28, 2020
There isn’t much here to really latch onto, save for some preciously executed technical choices. Read full review
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