Undertow: Critic Reviews

100%

MovieWeb: 0 reviews

55%

RottenTomatoes: 116 reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

59

Green's new film opens with a sequence that's at once visceral and baffling.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Stephen Holden New York Times (Top Critic)

60

The young director David Gordon Green's first film with a conventional plot is a moody gothic thriller drenched in myth and superstition.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

Unevenly torn between its would-be poetry and its melodramatic narrative.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Stephen Hunter Washington Post (Top Critic)

The suspense first-rate.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

50

A thriller that has no interest in thrills.
Full Review » 8 years ago
J. Hoberman Village Voice (Top Critic)

It's surprisingly visceral-at times almost thrilling.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jack Mathews New York Daily News (Top Critic)

50

Bell's performance as a teenager becoming a man in midflight pulls us through this murky, slow-paced affair, but it's a slog.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Eric Harrison Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

75

From its opening lines and first enigmatic image, everything about Undertow is both dreamlike and real, artfully elusive and matter-of-fact.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Chris Vognar Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

75

A taut piece of Southern Gothic from Richardson native David Gordon Green.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

100

Green has a visual style that is beautiful without being pretty. We never catch him photographing anything for its scenic or decorative effect.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

88

Seething with violence, bleeding with lyricism, it's a poem from the junk heap, a cry from the swamp, another night for another hunter.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

75

A small, unsettling thriller.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jeff Strickler Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

63

There's certainly nothing wrong with trying to make a movie visually pleasing, but it shouldn't come until after there's a good plot and intriguing characters.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Kathy Cano Murillo Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

50

One non-threatening Undertow.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Rex Reed New York Observer (Top Critic)

A real Gothic page-turner in the William Faulkner tradition.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Scott Foundas Variety (Top Critic)

A deep-fried piece of Southern Gothic that wears its unpleasantness like a merit badge...
Full Review » 3 years ago
Megan Lehmann New York Post (Top Critic)

75

Undertow conforms to many of the tropes of a formula thriller but, aided by an evocative Philip Glass score and Tim Orr's beautifully naturalistic cinematography, it transcends the genre.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

40

Green is all surface and no depth in his effort to channel the late novelist William Faulkner.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Peter Howell Toronto Star (Top Critic)

40

'Southern Gothic' and 'arthouse' are rarely used to describe the same movie, and Undertow is a prime example of why that is.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Rick Groen Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

63

A thriller in dire need of thrills.
Full Review » 8 years ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

75

Those going to Undertow expecting a thriller will find the proceedings slow going. However, those who are seduced by the characters and the setting will find that the 105 minutes pass quickly.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

Undertow is the kind of mistake a young and adventurous director will make.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Peter Travers Rolling Stone (Top Critic)

50

Full Review » 7 years ago
Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

60

A movie that doesn't add up to the sum of its parts, yet some of those parts connect deeply anyway.
Full Review » 8 years ago
David Wiegand San Francisco Chronicle

100

Full Review » 2 years ago