52
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesRobert DanielsLos Angeles TimesRobert DanielsSometimes Wolf is slight, relying on mystery and metaphor to build suspense, but Biancheri’s sense of narrative adventure imbues this survivalist picture with more than uneasiness. She gives it tenderness.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperChicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperWriter-director Nathalie Biancheri treats this potentially sensational material with sensitivity and empathy, though Wolf sometimes careens in the direction of a pure horror film and introduces some late elements that border on the grotesque and seem superfluous to the main story. Still, this is an involving and dark fairy tale, with great performances from MacKay and Depp.
- 70Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzWriter and director Nathalie Biancheri’s film explores the lives of those living as “The Other,” outside society’s norms. It requires commitment on the part of the actors and the audience. It’s a worthwhile investment.
- 67Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAustin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSuperficially, Wolf may seem like an entry into the queer canon, and it's not hard to see superficial similarities between the facility and a gay conversion therapy facility, or to superimpose transphobia onto Jacob's diagnosis of species dysphoria.
- 61Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganPaste MagazineNatalia KeoganEqual parts captivating and cringey, writer/director Nathalie Biancheri’s Wolf flounders in the face of articulating its own thesis.
- 60The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanThe New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanWolf may lead with an open curiosity, but in tackling big ideas about identity, openness is not always enough.
- 50Washington PostMichael O'SullivanWashington PostMichael O'SullivanBeing oneself is (or, again, seems to be) the theme of Wolf, which at times plays like a clumsy allegory about, say, the challenges faced by trans youth — there’s a poster on the wall of the clinic about “species dysphoria” — yet most of the time is simply a more generalized fable about finding your groove, your bliss, your true, inner self — and running with it (naked, if need be, and on all fours). If it’s an allegory, it trivializes whatever it’s allegorizing.
- 50The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloWhat’s certain is that a stronger, more searching exploration of this scenario—one not so starkly conceived in terms of victims and villains—would have gone a long way toward alleviating potential misgivings. Wolf is so thin that one can’t help but look right through it.
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliViewed from the straightforward perspective of a narrative-based motion picture, writer/director Nathalie Biancheri’s sophomore feature never gains traction. There are some interesting ideas but it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to the characters or the situation the more obviously divorced from reality things become.
- 40The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMore an extreme theatre-school exercise than a substantive act of filmmaking, the new drama Wolf is one wild, rabid mess.