Introduces an element of finality to the American West...part of a new wave of films that herald the death of the Western.

| May 26, 2022

This is a reflective, sensitive feature in which the stunning cinematography of stark Montana landscapes compliment the mood and further the accomplishments of the thoughtful performances and story.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 24, 2022

The film constitutes a breakthrough for Teague and confirms the promise that Richardson showed in “Five Feet Apart” and “Edge of Seventeen” — a powerhouse in the making.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 23, 2022

A very heavy family drama. Ultimately it is very uplifting, which is what I like most about it.

| May 21, 2022

Richardson and Teague, meanwhile, are magnetic...Their story is personal, yes. But their performances make it universal, and make “Montana Story” a story worth telling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2022

The expansive widescreen images of Montana landscapes and the impeccable lead and supporting performances carry the picture, and it's generally a pleasure to see a film done in this mode at a time when so few filmmakers dare attempt it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 17, 2022

The interactions between the people may seem small in comparison to the wide-open landscapes and rolling hills. In the hands of everyone involved with this moving drama, however, they echo long and loudly nonetheless.

| May 17, 2022

The flawed young characters grow on you, their troubles gradually becoming as mythic as the landscape that surrounds them.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 17, 2022

Montana Story, for all its beauty, grows tiresome because it has nowhere to drive other than toward reconciliation.

| May 13, 2022

The script is a touch too novelistic and the ending rather predictable, but pitch-perfect performances keep this melodrama from slipping too far into mawkishness.

| May 13, 2022

While the events that transpire are minimal, the poignancy of “Montana Story” resides in watching these two strangers, once inseparable, reconnect now as different people but with the same scars.

| May 13, 2022

There’s much to like in “Montana Story,” including Teague and Richardson, who, whether together or alone, retain an emotional integrity.

| May 12, 2022

Teague and Richardson establish a compelling interplay; their bond is like a tossed-away blossom that uncrumples and comes back to life.

| May 12, 2022

Movies about childhood trauma rarely come as powerfully understated as Montana Story.

| Original Score: B+ | May 11, 2022

The film is initially distinguished by its poetic understatement, only for it to eventually succumb to staleness.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 10, 2022

This is a minor-key modern Western whose melancholy probe into the bruising past gives way, in a quietly satisfying conclusion, to the hope of reconciliation, even healing.

| Sep 16, 2021

Two excellent young performers hold enough of it together, but a languid pace that feels almost designed to mimic the speed of life in Big Sky Country goes too far.

| Sep 16, 2021

While the occasional exposition-laden monologue rears its ugly head, the directors offset their familial drama with plain-spoken filmmaking that foregrounds the beautiful panoramic vistas of Montana in epic fashion.

| Sep 13, 2021

"Montana Story" doesn't reinvent the Western wheel. Rather it offers tender mercies as a sentimental work that explodes in well-earned fury.

| Original Score: B | Sep 13, 2021