Mia Wasikowska gives a fine performance as Penelope.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 5, 2024

With humor as dry as the topography, Damsel is the kind of film that sneaks up on you like a snake in the weeds.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2024

A tremendously fun movie, Damsel reinvigorates the Western aesthetic even as it defies many of the genre’s story conventions.

| Dec 6, 2023

It is a film that has been overlooked and demands a critical reassessment for its goofy pleasures, sharp commentary, and playfulness with genre traditions.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 12, 2022

...absurdist humor and an overall paceless narrative...

| Original Score: 48/100 | Aug 22, 2021

The film's saving grace is Robert Pattinson, who yeehaw lil-doggies it onto the screen during the opening credits and doesn't let up, hoofing it with a slightly deranged abandon

| Jul 14, 2021

The Zellners have carefully crafted a movie that is often quite funny, and subversive to a point, but there isn't much soulfulness underneath the formal play.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 5, 2021

...the Zellners' mean-spiritedness isn't sour. Rather, there's an almost prankish, Bugs Bunny wackiness to their derision.

| Dec 10, 2020

There's just enough pretzel logic and devotion to wacky personalities to make Damsel mildly infectious and charming.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 7, 2020

...throughout its 110-minute runtime, I had no idea where the story might take me. And that's a high compliment, indeed.

| Jul 24, 2020

[Penelope is] a badass, she's headstrong, she's self-assured, and she's dryly funny, but her own movie is so dry that the structure cracks under its own pressure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2020

It was just sort of absurd for the sake of it.

| May 15, 2020

It was really immature and really basic white boy dumbness.

| May 15, 2020

A midmovie plot twist hands the narrative over to Mia Wasikowska as the sweetheart, and her committed performance seems out of place in this extended goof.

| Mar 4, 2020

Robert Pattinson as smooth and passionate with Mia Wasikowska as a powerhouse, but raving banshee, give unexpected performances. It's fun watching them horse around in this Western.

| Aug 13, 2019

The Zellner Brothers, Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska turn the American western on its head with hilarious, offbeat tones and performances.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 6, 2019

An off-kilter western about misplaced love that whilst not without its pleasures, ultimately struggles to overcome its abundance of creaky contrivances and absurdities.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 24, 2019

If total weirdness with a Western flavor is what you are looking for, Damsel is it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 23, 2019

Even with a bizarre public hanging and some animated shootings, the action scenes felt insipid, while the humor didn't improve.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 1, 2019

...it's unclear if the Zellners believe there's a tragic romance in wanting a woman who doesn't want you back or they understand that's just patriarchal BS.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 22, 2018