57
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonWall Street JournalJohn AndersonBarbarians is sometimes a comedy of ill manners, sometimes an exhilarating thriller, but it’s also an amusingly clever and sometimes violent parable about venality, vulgarity and territoriality. Barbarians may be an ambiguous title, but it’s apt.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliBarbarians starts out as a tense psychological thriller unfolding against the tableau of a not-so-friendly dinner before morphing into something decidedly physical and creepy.
- 70Film ThreatPatrice WitherspoonFilm ThreatPatrice WitherspoonSome pacing issues result in a feature that feels a bit uneven, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t entertained throughout all the craziness.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovDirector and writer Charles Dorfman’s debut feature is a corker of a good time to watch and rife with some juicy subtext regarding class, British colonialism, and toxic (read: douchebag) masculinity.
- 63RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyThe director carries out his ultimately banal aims with commendable dispatch, and it’s always interesting to see Moreno play a character who’s not a living saint.
- 60Paste MagazineMatt DonatoPaste MagazineMatt DonatoI’m torn on Barbarians, because while the film displays sharpened technical filmmaking chops, it’s an unbalanced invasion thriller caught between its subgenre intentions.
- 50Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayDorfman does an excellent job of constructing a dialogue- and performance-driven chamber piece; but he shows less skill at staging fight scenes and raw terror.
- 38Slant MagazineWilliam RepassSlant MagazineWilliam RepassThroughout, Barbarians oscillates between smugness and apprehensiveness about the film that it’s trying to be.
- 30The New York TimesLena WilsonThe New York TimesLena Wilson“Antichrist” may have been chauvinistic in its own right, but at least was interesting to watch. Barbarians doesn’t provide much excitement at all.