C Bruno’s review published on Letterboxd:
Tonally inconsistent and morally questionable, this early '60s curio does have a handful of spectacular moments, particularly in its first half, during which it admirably foregrounds the sort of aimless grief, anxiety, and confusion that other films of this vintage generally minimized in favor of a more propulsive narrative.
I really don't know what to make of the second half, wherein Mary Ann's PTSD gives way to a kind of Stockholm Syndrome as she convalesces against her will in the apartment of the alcoholic Good Samaritan who thwarted her lackadaisical suicide attempt; are we to root for the two broken souls who prop one another up, or mourn for our heroine's continued capitulation to the wills of men? Mike may be more civilized than Mary Ann's rapist, but he is still guilty of coercion and a belief that women are pliable, fungible assets; the rapist uses and discards, whereas Mike saves and claims ownership -- what's missing from both is interest in or acknowledgement of Mary Ann's agency, will, or self.
It's an interesting companion to Baby Doll, Carroll Baker's other performance as a young woman prematurely forced into adulthood via the sexual machinations of two older men, but despite a handful of bravura sequences (the scene in the museum is genuinely unsettling) and some shot-on-location views of midcentury New York, Something Wild is the weaker of the two films.