Popular reviews

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  Review by Harry Ridgway ★★★★½ 7

  The undeniable achievement of The Hunter is how the solemn and emotive nucleus puts the films universally significant threads into perspective. It's a classic instance of a smaller-scale journey representing a larger-than-life societal and environmental matter - and with the aid of director Daniel Nettheim, the screenwriters and an extraordinary and anchoring performance by Willem Dafoe, the compressed but universal themes become especially transcendent. Sustainability, exploitation, solitude - all these issues factor into this beautiful and regimented creation.

  Mirroring its protagonist, The Hunter is methodical and patient with its progression. Nettheim and his writers subtly ascertain Martin David to be a man of privacy, meticulousness, swiftness, stubbornness and unyieldingness. His precise line of work is ambiguously managed, but from David's…

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  Review by Tyler 1

  there are 5 bath scenes in this movie

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  Review by 𝖂𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖎𝖆𝖒 ★★★★

  I love a movie that claims to be about hunting but is really just Willem Dafoe walking around, circling things on a map

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 6

  RECOMMENDED BY Jacob

  After this and Wolf Creek and Wake In Fright - I am starting to think the folks at the Aussie outback don't really like tourists... or Aussies for that matter. That being said, now I want to see a crossover film between the Outback people and the American Rednecks, that shall make for a very entertaining movie.

  Unfortunately my crazy ideas are vastly much entertaining that this Dafoe's starrer, where you can argue he's really the only thing good in it and the only reason to watch this. There are no loud moments or anything, but his interactions with the kids was really nice. Speaking of the kids, they were both great but by the end of…

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  Review by Tentin Quarantino ☭ ★★★★ 3

  Criminally under-appreciated, but not surprisingly so. It's the kind of movie Marvel and Chris Nolan fans will call "boring" because it's not explaining everything out loud multiple times in-between fist fights and explosions. No one quips turgid one-liners, either. No, this is the kind of movie that takes its time and encourages you to actually think about what's going on, and why it's going on. This is moviemaking for adults.

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  Review by maria ★★★

  willem dafoe can do literally anything and i’ll eat it up. he owns me

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  Review by Ava ☭ ★½ 4

  when ur on ur period and you decide it's time to watch a Film so you go on netflix and you are really in the mood to watch The Grey (2011) but you want to watch something new so you're like haha okay ill settle for The Hunter (2011) which sounds exactly like the grey (2011) and it even has dafoe and i love dafoe but then ur watching The Hunter (2011) and you're like this isn't good at all this is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life and you finish The Hunter (2011) and you're left saying to yourself...

  Damn bitch i wish i watched the existential masterpiece The Grey (2011.

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  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★½ 2

  It's better off extinct.
  -Lucy Armstrong

  The first thing that came to mind watching this is that Willem Dafoe is not cast in enough leading roles in this day and age. He's still has an undeniable screen presence that some actors never attain. As evidenced by this movie, he's able to command the screen and make a scene be compelling while being the only actor in it. In fact the film's strongest moments are when Dafoe is alone in the Tasmanian forests.

  The cinematography is also incredibly strong here and not only in the obvious places. The mountains and rainforest do look truly amazing, but the smaller intimate moments of the film are also visually interesting without being distracting. There's…

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  Review by tedgoose ★★★½

  Betcha I could find the Tasmanian tiger without being such a gloomy guts.

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  Review by wmllmw ★★★★½ 7

  I feel like I'm the only person on earth that knows about this film.

  "The Hunter" is a slow-burn film if there ever was one, but I've never shied away from a slower film, especially if they're as beautiful as this one is.

  This is the story of a man named named Martin David (played by a perhaps career-definingly powerful Willem Dafoe) who is sent out by a scientific company known as Red Leaf into the Tasmanian wilderness to capture an animal believed to be extinct. But don't expect a "The Grey" style man vs. nature type deal (and "The Grey", by the way is another excellent/overlooked/under-appreciated film released around the same time as The Hunter), because "The Hunter" has…

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  Review by Garry ★★★★ 2

  “See, look here this has all the signs of a tiger kill. She eats the heart first. And this is the cave. She's been there. She probably has dens all around the area and she moves between them...but sooner or later she’ll move back here. I wonder if she's the last one. Alone. Just...hunting and killing, waiting to die..”

  I hope that I’ll remember to check out the novel by Julia Leigh. Highly doubt it’s any less heartbreaking, but who knows..

  • Director: Daniel Nettheim
  • Author: Julia Leigh (1999)
  • Release: October 6, 2011
  • Runtime: 102 minutes
  • Letterboxd Average: 3.3
  • Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

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  Review by Cusack ★★★

  I really liked the direction and the style of the film. Wasn’t expecting some of the uses of music here and they worked well. But I didn’t like the odd conspiracy sub-plot going on here or the poor twist with the family in the end. I also thought the relationship between Dafoe’s character and the family could definitely have been stronger so that the very end was more impactful. It kind of just fell flat for me instead. Overall, not bad but it’s a definite 3/5 type of movie.