Vic + Flo Saw A Bear strikes a perfect balance of observational apprehension that some of his earlier work seems to overwork in the more formal aspects of his style.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 4, 2020

It exists successfully as an enigma, but falters as a gripping character drama. It's like a jigsaw puzzle put together only to show a blank picture.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 28, 2020

Vic + Flo Saw A Bear is a very strange film, one that's fully realized yet feels like it can veer off into any direction at a moment's notice.

| Original Score: 7.7/10 | Jun 21, 2019

Both women's performances are excellent, and the setting of rural Quebec is serene.

| Aug 21, 2018

In the end, the genre-bending of "Vic + Flo Saw a Bear" makes way for a grim romanticism. Vic and Flo's fate is simultaneously terrifying and achingly hopeful.

| Feb 17, 2018

Even if completely taken at face value, though, Côté pulls no punches by letting you pass your own judgment on those who're left.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 21, 2016

[Côté's] actors pull us into his strange slice of life on the edge of a forest where humor, kindness, longing and brutality make for an artful mix.

| Original Score: B | Jun 17, 2014

Equal parts love story and horror show, it honors two unapologetically unassimilable women.

| May 22, 2014

It's all about love. And neediness. And perhaps the worst possible death you could imagine falling onto deep into the dark woods of Canada.

| Apr 16, 2014

Ultimately, "Vic + Flo" becomes both horrific and strangely, surreally beautiful, in a final moment in the afternoon sun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2014

Côté and his collaborators have crafted an astounding movie that doesn't care about being adored but that certainly demands to be dealt with.

| Feb 14, 2014

It's all very well to toy with genre elements by making incongruous aesthetic and tonal choices and adding an offbeat sensibility. But the director still needs to make us care about his characters.

| Feb 13, 2014

The way that the story of Vic + Flo Saw a Bear reads, it seems familiar, but the way the film plays out is anything but.

| Original Score: B | Feb 7, 2014

The title may sound like a children's book and the bear may be metaphoric, but make no mistake: This is a story with surprisingly great, big teeth.

| Feb 6, 2014

As Côté dives deeper into these moods, the film turns aggressive and impressionistic, moving from low-key drama to tragicomic fairy tale.

| Feb 6, 2014

It's an ominous, claustrophobic, unhappily sapphic work whose thunderclap of a climax instills terror and awe of the fates' petty, whimsical cruelties.

Full Review | Feb 4, 2014

Not quite plot-driven enough to be confused with a conventional thriller, this tense character study leaves us feeling that something ominous is always about ready to happen.

| Feb 4, 2014

The film presents its tonal switch-ups and narrative swerves with a deadpan belligerence by turns stimulating, calculated, and poignant.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2014

As Vic, Robitaille is superb -- cordial, with something hinting at gratitude and relief buried in her resignation.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 26, 2013

The way it unfolds feels less about a conventional story than a series of set-ups and what-next moments in a genre-bender that might be called nature-noir.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2013