The New Boy

critic Reviews

, 76% Certified Fresh Tomatometer Score
  • The New Boy bites off more than it can comfortably chew, but this heady exploration of faith and cultural tensions has an ethereal allure.
  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Randy MyersSan Jose Mercury News
    What happens instead propels both on a spiritual, existential journey that challenges their beliefs. “The New Boy” explores those big questions but leaves it to us to find out the answers.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Jourdain SearlesRogerEbert.com
    Newcomer Reid perfectly embodies the spirit of the film, making us feel his confusion and share his joy in the small moments where he’s allowed to be himself.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Beatrice LoayzaNew York Times
    Thornton, who briefly attended a Christian boarding school when he was a child, brings a textured perspective to this story of cultural violence and white guilt.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Mark KermodeKermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)
    It's not the film you think it's going to be. It's far more transcendent than that.
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  • , Rotten Tomatometer Score
    Wendy IdeObserver (UK)
    The pacing is languid to a fault and it all gets rather bogged down in allegory.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    John NugentEmpire Magazine
    A gentle, odd little Australian fable. Warwick Thornton’s film has a lot of thoughts to process, and while they don’t always cohere, the performances from Blanchett and Reid keep it interesting.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Morris YangIn Review Online
    Although Thornton may have been more acclaimed for his brunt and brutal depictions of racism in Sweet Country, it’s the modernizing, reformist ideology in The New Boy that deserves better recognition for its vicious imprint on Australian history.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Ruth MaramisFlixChatter Film Blog
    A beautifully shot film that offers powerful insights into the enduring sting of Aboriginal assimilation. Blanchett is always stellar, while Reid is impressive in his debut performance.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Abbie BernsteinAssignment X
    Handsome but slow tale of magic at a 1940s Australian Catholic orphanage.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Christopher LloydThe Film Yap
    Cate Blanchett is a tortured nun trying to protect an Indigenous boy in WWII era Australia, but the lad's spiritual truth doesn't align with her religious zeal in this allegorical rumination.
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