60
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90VarietyJoe LeydonVarietyJoe LeydonAn exceptionally compelling Outback Western.
- 80Screen DailySarah WardScreen DailySarah WardThe atmospheric revenge-thriller marks the feature filmmaking debut of actor/writer/director Leah Purcell, who plays the titular matriarch with steely resolve, rousingly adapts her own play and book, and delivers an impassioned film with an unflinching Indigenous and feminist perspective.
- 80Time OutStephen A. RussellTime OutStephen A. RussellRewriting the narrative through an anti-colonial, Black and feminist lens, Purcell bestowed a First Nations background and the moniker Molly Johnson on Lawson’s unnamed protagonist. Delving deeper into Molly’s troubles in the novel of the same name, this film marks her third spin at the material. It’s still riveting.
- 70Film ThreatBradley GibsonFilm ThreatBradley GibsonDespite struggling with a thematic focus, the film presents a woman who is well worth getting to know.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAn interrogation of Australia's history of racial violence that also takes on gender, identity and domestic abuse against a backdrop right out of an archetypal high country Western, the engrossing thriller is admirably ambitious but choppy, at times eluding the director's grasp.
- 60The GuardianDebbie ZhouThe GuardianDebbie ZhouIt’s Purcell’s powerhouse performance that lends the film its punchier, gritty edge.
- 60Little White LiesDavid JenkinsLittle White LiesDavid JenkinsOccasionally, the film does lack ambiguity, and there are a number of characters who, just through the casting, make-up and dress, come across as one-dimensional extremes of “goodies” and “baddies”. Yet Molly herself, and the seemingly endless string of physical and psychological trials she endures . . . makes for a satisfying emotional core.
- 60The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeThe Irish TimesDonald ClarkeUnfortunately, the longer the film goes on the more blankly didactic it becomes.
- 58IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandPurcell, as star, stays resolute to the last, but as filmmaker, her sharp ideas are dulled into something that barely leaves a mark.
- 40CineVueMatthew AndersonCineVueMatthew AndersonThe metaphors of colonial history, the subjugation of women and Aboriginal peoples, vicious social ills and a nation’s hidden guilty past are all alluded to. But their treatment in The Legend of Molly Johnson are not developed to the extent needed to leave the lasting gut punch, and change of consciousness, this admirable project could have achieved.