Providing a remote view of a small town, the film hones in on the mundane community tasks of milking animals and tidying up hay barns, which is what makes The County feel so much more relatable...

| May 15, 2023

Hákonarson wants to streamline all these complicated ideas into a feel-good story. In the process, though, he winds up doing his characters and his audience a grave disservice.

| Jun 6, 2021

Arndís Hrönn Egílsdottir gives the protagonist a complex personality of a reluctant warrior, with its tragedies rooted in the rot of capitalism and the external forces of power.

| May 29, 2021

A powerful protagonist, Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir as Inga gives a completely believable performance, as do all the farmers.

| May 7, 2021

Egilsdóttir carries Inga with a sort of stubborn resolve.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 5, 2021

The County is a firm and unsentimental reminder of the force of community.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 1, 2021

Egilsdottir's committed portrayal earns sympathy for Inga's underdog cause, supplying a gritty urgency amid a familiar narrative arc.

| May 1, 2021

It's a small but mighty movie, and one that I found satisfying.

| May 1, 2021

...still satisfying, sporting a characteristically Icelandic black-comedy dourness to the humor en route to an underdog's triumph...

| Apr 30, 2021

The County follows the cinematic tradition of rabble-rousing women who dare upset the societal norms including those in Norma Rae, North Country, Erin Brockovich and a subversive pinch of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

| Apr 30, 2021

The County is at its best when it centers Egilsdóttir's nuanced performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 30, 2021

It frames the David vs. Goliath story almost like a thriller, with intriguing allegorical implications about the perils of overreaching government in modern Europe.

| Apr 30, 2021

Even with some strangely perfunctory plot pivots and an abruptly unsatisfying ending, "The County" benefits from Egilsdottir's central performance, which is both delicate and imposingly stalwart.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 30, 2021

The film takes a stand for the common man, or in this case a middle-aged, emerging activist, without a galvanizing, crowd-pleasing Norma Rae moment. It's much too subdued for that.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 30, 2021

[I]ts effectiveness as a character study and its purpose are pretty shallow.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 30, 2021

The County is so lacking in inspiration that I had to double check to make sure it wasn't some heap of "based on a true story" pablum.

| Apr 29, 2021

It is certainly well-made and well-acted, but the very concept of the whole enterprise is so odd and off-putting that it left a bad taste in my mouth that none of its genuine achievements could quite overcome.

| Apr 29, 2021

Inextricably rooted in lead Arndis Hrönn Egilsdöttir's quietly defiant performance, "The County" tells an immersive, timeless David vs. Goliath story set against a contemporary backdrop of shifting societal norms.

| Apr 29, 2021

Hákonarson favors a somber tone and maintains a movie that never quite slips out of register.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 29, 2021

At a brisk 92 minutes, The County takes less time to watch than the average Monopoly game takes to play, while offering much the same grim lesson.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 29, 2021