Z for Zachariah Movie Reviews
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5.0
Jeannette Catsoulis | The New York Times
Maintaining a strict formal allegiance to reserve and restraint, [Mr. Zobel] shapes a dreamily elegant emotional ballet from glances and gestures and subtle shifts in power.Read full review4.6
Drew McWeeny | HitFix
Z For Zachariah may not be a faithful adaptation of a well-liked book, but as a film, it is a lovely, powerful piece of work.Read full review4.5
Stephanie Zacharek | Village Voice
The film works on its own terms, capturing, at least, the mournful vibe of O'Brien's book. What's more, Zobel's revision opens up plenty of space for the three actors who inhabit this circumscribed little world, all of whom are terrific.Read full review4.5
Randy Cordova | Arizona Republic
Director Craig Zobel (he made the creepily effective “Compliance”) lets the story unfold in wonderfully hushed fashion.Read full review4.0
Tim Grierson | Screen International
Z For Zachariah’s beauty is its simplicity, Zobel telling the story with a minimum of fuss and resisting easy explanations for his characters’ actions.Read full review4.0
Joe Morgenstern | Wall Street Journal
Z for Zachariah asks us to suspend a good deal of disbelief. Ann is absurdly beautiful, and Ms. Robbie emerges as a full-fledged star, even though her performance is precise and understated.Read full review4.0
Alonso Duralde | TheWrap
Z for Zachariah feels like a genuine rarity: an American movie that doesn’t tell you what to think or how to feel when the credits start rolling. Contemplating our doom doesn’t seem like a bad idea when it’s done this skillfully.Read full review3.8
All this publication's reviews | indieWIRE
Even as the story’s increased tension weakens its subtleties, Zobel's sensitive handling of the emotional tone throughout grounds the film with an overarching realism despite the far-fetched setting.Read full review3.4
Rodrigo Perez | The Playlist
Its craft can be impressive: Zobel’s film possesses a searing, slow burn tone that’s beautifully controlled. The movie is admirably patient and gives breathing room and space for these relationships to bloom believably and organically. But the build to a climax is far too slow and with little emotional payoff.Read full review3.2
Tom Russo | Boston Globe
Far from contrived, the triangle that “Zachariah” sketches among the last three folks on earth is all too human.Read full review3.0
Todd McCarthy | The Hollywood Reporter
Craig Zobel effectively sets all its surface parts in motion but, crucially, doesn’t sufficiently develop that turbulent undercurrents of tension and intrigue that are called for in the hothouse circumstances.Read full review3.0
Bilge Ebiri | New York Magazine (Vulture)
The descent into a tepid thriller of sexual jealousy slowly negates the abstract, almost metaphorical quality of this film — and it ultimately undoes the spell cast by that mesmerizing first half.Read full review3.0
Scott Foundas | Variety
Z for Zachariah is a handsome-looking film (shot in widescreen, on remote New Zealand locations, by veteran David Gordon Green d.p. Tim Orr) and it doesn’t lack for provocative ideas, though it never digs quite deep enough into any of them.Read full review3.0
Joshua Rothkopf | Time Out New York
The question of winning Ann sexually takes on an ugly character, and the film dumbs down fast. This is how the world ends: not with a bang but a wimp.Read full review1.9
Ed Gonzalez | Slant Magazine
The film squanders the promise of its scrutiny into how people recalibrate their sense of morality in times of crisis.Read full review
