77
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijOne of Apprentice’s strongest selling points is how, in a very compact yet pleasingly dense way, it takes viewers into both the world of the executioners and the executed criminals’ family members who remain behind, two often almost ignored categories in films touching on capital punishment.
- 90Screen DailyLisa NesselsonScreen DailyLisa NesselsonTightly focused and ambitious in its multiple themes, the tale touches on how the death penalty radiates out to affect the living.
- 88Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenWriter-director Boo Junfeng casually reinvigorates the prison drama, boiling its elements down to their primal essence.
- 80Village VoiceNick SchagerVillage VoiceNick SchagerIn a finale rife with twisted feelings of resentment, fury, and self-loathing, the film transforms into a grave meditation on the corrosive shadow cast by the decisions, and crimes, of yesterday.
- 80The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenAt first Apprentice seems to be a basic revenge film in which Aiman stalks the man who killed his father. But it becomes psychologically more complex.
- 60VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThe movie feels a little too sparse and literal in places.
- 42The Film StageEthan VestbyThe Film StageEthan VestbyWhile not without the occasional jolt of a sudden execution, the film feels so wholly tell and not show. Its left-wing politics about toxic masculinity bleeding into the justice system are so much a given that it’s just a dead-weight experience to watch.