Hostiles Reviews

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Luke Parker
Dr. Filmlove's Film Reviews and Ratings
August 22, 2019
Hostiles is unyielding and brutal, and is a fine addition to the masterclass of modern westerns. [February 1, 2018]
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4
Brett McCracken
The Gospel Coalition
August 20, 2019
A film with a distinctly Christian grasp of universal culpability and reconciling grace.
Full Review
Matt Donato
Flickering Myth
July 22, 2019
At the least, it's a plea for history not to repeat itself - with plenty of gut-check thrills and perilous storytelling to heighten the mood.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
Matthew Lucas
The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)
June 3, 2019
Cooper riffs on John Ford's The Searchers in a minor key, filling Hostiles with sweeping vistas that recall the grand Monument Valley locations that graced so many classic westerns.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4
Julie Crawford
North Shore News (Vancouver, B.C.)
April 16, 2019
If Phantom Thread was truly Daniel Day-Lewis' last movie, the title of Greatest Living Actor is now vacant; look to Christian Bale at the front of the queue of possible replacements.
Full Review | Original Score: 8/10
Jack Blackwell
One Room With A View
February 19, 2019
It's simply a mediocre film, stuffed with filler dialogue and a surfeit of slow-motion closeups substituting for any real character development.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5
Filipe Freitas
Always Good Movies
January 31, 2019
A journey into the West that, feeling as tiresome as it is shallow, could never be considered inviting.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5
Marshall Shaffer
Slashfilm
January 24, 2019
This avoidance of anything resembling monotonic character development in Hostiles will either prove energizing or exhausting, depending on an audience's taste.
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10
Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots
December 21, 2018
A handsome-looking, brutal and barbaric film with lofty ambitions that's worth seeing if only for these reasons (and Christian Bale's performance).
Full Review
Andrew Wyatt
The Lens
December 7, 2018
The film's mood is overwhelmingly bitter, despairing, and exhausted, reflecting the characters' preoccupation with the world's capricious cruelty and their own incalculable contributions to it.
Full Review | Original Score: B-
Alistair Ryder
The Digital Fix
November 19, 2018
Increases the boredom factor the more it chooses to brood instead of engage with the plights of its characters.
Full Review | Original Score: 5/10
John Hanlon
John Hanlon Reviews
November 19, 2018
Morally provocative and thoughtful, this Western offers a few standout performances (including a great supporting turn by Rosamund Pike).
Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4
Matt Ward
Cinematic Considerations
November 6, 2018
Director Scott Cooper's fourth feature film makes major strides towards deep meaning, but occasionally falters while on the journey for truth.
Full Review
Matt Oakes
Silver Screen Riot
November 1, 2018
Exhausting racism aside, Hostiles is just plain boring.
Full Review | Original Score: D
Kyle Kizu
MovieMinis
October 31, 2018
So much of Hostiles works, and sticks with us long after we've left the theater, because of how quiet and subtle it all is.
Full Review | Original Score: A-
Micheal Compton
Bowling Green Daily News
October 26, 2018
Cooper lets his cast elevate the story against the beautiful backdrop of Masanobu Takayanagi's stunning cinematography. The result is a film that is beautiful and introspective, but also unflinching in its brutality.
Full Review | Original Score: A-
Clint Worthington
The Spool
October 26, 2018
It feels like an overextended, inwardly focused self-flagellation that doesn't take Native perspectives into true consideration.
Full Review
Derek Deskins
Edge Media Network
October 10, 2018
So is the struggle of seeing a Scott Cooper film. The director exhibits so much raw potential in his filmmaking, walking up to the line of greatness without being able to take that final step.
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5
Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider
October 10, 2018
Hostiles is an elementary script bolstered by two Oscar-caliber performances from Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike, complimented with several scenes of nightmarish intensity.
Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10
Kimberly Pierce
Geek Girl Authority
September 15, 2018
Scott Cooper crafts a beautiful example of cinema through some of the greatest use of western landscape in recent examples of the genre.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
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