White Bird in a Blizzard
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: October 24, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
19
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 5, 2015
Woodley is the teen angst poster girl de nos jours, but this performance is subtler and richer than any other she’s given to date. Read full review
75
The PlaylistChase WhaleJan 27, 2014
White Bird in a Blizzard is worth seeing for Eva Green’s performance alone, and to experience the dreamlike quality of Gregg Araki’s individual, highly unique vision of cinema. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 23, 2014
White Bird in a Blizzard is an alibi for Mr. Araki to flex his considerable muscle as a visual artist, using a palette that ranges from the blissful to the grotesque, and an atmospheric score by those eminences of the ambient, Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 27, 2014
It’s naughty, campy and wildly uneven. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 22, 2014
White Bird In A Blizzard, is another literary adaptation, gunning for respectability. It’s the most mainstream and accessible picture he’s (Araki) ever made, but this time his pendulum swung a bit too far in that direction. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniOct 31, 2014
Araki's films have never been known for their subtlety. Think Douglas-Sirk-meets-Johnny-Rotten. He tries to rein in his tendency for the baroque in White Bird in a Blizzard, but he pushes the story too far in the direction of the grotesque. Read full review
60
CineVueBen NicholsonMar 5, 2015
Araki does manage to give Kasischke's ending a subversive little twist, but the scenario has spawned numerous complex questions and while they may be given traction throughout, the rushed and forced conclusion leaves one simultaneously nonchalant and conflicted, much like Kat. Read full review
60
EmpirePhil de SemlyenMar 2, 2015
A more restrained effort from Araki than the headrush of Kaboom, there’s plenty of fun to be had in Eva Green’s Joan Crawford-esque turn as the vanished lady Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamMar 2, 2015
Misses the energy and vitality of Gregg Araki’s best work, but there’s more going on here than immediately meets the eye. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 24, 2014
Evocative, gorgeous, occasionally maddening film. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 23, 2014
Its elements don’t really cohere. Read full review
60
Village VoiceDanny KingOct 21, 2014
If the results are occasionally broad and schematic, the actors (Woodley especially) are anything but, and Araki has an absolute field day adorning his kitschy, 1950s-ish view of suburban Los Angeles with a string of showoffy colors. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 21, 2014
Younger audiences will see "The Fault in Our Stars’" Shailene Woodley once again excelling in an emotionally tricky role: Kat, a 17-year-old blooming into her wild years while reckoning with an increasingly unhinged mother, Eve (Eva Green, crazy-eyed and just this side of Faye Dunaway). Read full review
60
The DissolveNoel MurrayOct 21, 2014
Because the tone is so erratic, it’s hard to know whether its anticlimactic quality is a botch on Araki’s part, or a purposeful bit of genre subversion. Read full review
60
Film.comJordan HoffmanJan 27, 2014
There’s just too much good stuff to dismiss White Bird in a Blizzard out of hand, even if it does have a somewhat dull and desultory plot. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 31, 2014
Only Jane, as the cop who knows exactly what Mrs. Collins’s wayward daughter needs, has the sense of threat the movie is seeking. His and Woodley’s scenes together are dirty and alive. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 30, 2014
An odd little concoction, a coming-of-age story that, only in passing, is also a mystery. Read full review
50
TheWrapInkoo KangOct 24, 2014
The film largely squanders Woodley's considerable talents by having her talking about (but never showing us) the numb but open wound that is Kat's relationship with her mother. More disappointingly, the film never figures out how to translate Kat's lack of emotion into something that makes us feel anything other than distant pity. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 24, 2014
Typically, when Araki misses the mark, he misses wildly and with fascinating aplomb. White Bird, despite the best efforts of stars Shailene Woodley and Eva Green, is flat when it should be edged; something I never thought I’d say about the man who made a movie called “Totally Fucked Up.” Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 23, 2014
White Bird in a Blizzard is blank, pale and flat when it needs to be probing and suspenseful. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 19, 2014
Gregg Araki's film suggests a hothouse melodrama that's been drained of the hothouse, the melodrama, and any other discernably dramatic stakes. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 20, 2014
It's a modestly interesting coming-of-age movie, and a totally forgettable mystery. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 22, 2014
Having carried the mediocre smash “Divergent,” Shailene Woodley now uplifts another underwhelming teen thriller. This one’s as tiny as that one was huge. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesJan 27, 2014
Nothing really adds up to much, past a solid performance from Woodley and the energetic - if out-of-place - turn from Green. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 27, 2014
As detrimental as anything to the film’s effectiveness are the visuals, which are murky, lack compositional interest and do the actors no favors. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 21, 2014
Whatever its intent, White Bird in a Blizzard misuses most everybody involved, especially the dazzling young star of “The Descendants,””The Fault in Our Stars” and “Divergent.” Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickOct 22, 2014
“Scratch the surface and there’s only more surface,’’ a character all too accurately observes in this clunky, ugly and dull mash-up of a mystery. Read full review
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