Despite the impressive performance at its heart, Wolf's off-putting approach still keeps its audience at a remove.

| Dec 6, 2021

George MacKay, Lily-Rose Depp star in dark fairy tale that handles a real-life condition - believing you're not human - with sensitivity and empathy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2021

George MacKay's presence and physicality is perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of the film.

| Dec 4, 2021

But for as much writer/director Biancheri pumps copious ideas into this concept, the solemn tone and lack of thematic focus renders the overwrought outing underwhelming.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 3, 2021

What started with a sympathetic gaze promising complexity ultimately succumbs to the messiness of mixed tones and shallow observations, a call of the wild reduced to some tinny, ignorable whimpers.

| Dec 3, 2021

As the film invites us to ponder the real-world circumstances that it implies, its self-seriousness becomes a double-edged sword.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 3, 2021

Bichancheri should be commended for being genre defiant while MacKay should be awarded for his performance, but this is by no means for all tastes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 3, 2021

From Kafka to Kipling, there's plenty of potential in the subject of species dysphoria, but Biancheri hasn't really figured out how to tap into it.

| Dec 3, 2021

"Wolf" gives us lots to think about. Too much, in fact, because writer/director Nathalie Biancheri can't figure out how to shape the ideas her story suggests.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 2, 2021

Biancheri's imagery is consistently evocative, and her interest in how captivity affects dignity at times recalls the work of Yorgos Lanthimos.

| Dec 2, 2021

A questioning of identity within societal constraints, of what it takes to fit in, and asking at what point one rejects the limits of normal because it's impossible to comply.

| Dec 2, 2021

Sometimes Wolf is slight, relying on mystery and metaphor to build suspense, but Biancheri's sense of narrative adventure imbues this survivalist picture with more than uneasiness. She gives it tenderness.

| Dec 2, 2021

True to its name, "Wolf" is a howler.

| Original Score: D | Dec 1, 2021

More an extreme theatre-school exercise than a substantive act of filmmaking, the new drama Wolf is one wild, rabid mess.

| Dec 1, 2021

If it's an allegory, it trivializes whatever it's allegorizing.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 1, 2021

Wolf is so thin that one can't help but look right through it.

| Original Score: C | Dec 1, 2021

Wolf certainly won't be for all tastes, but adventurous filmgoers will find much to appreciate.

| Dec 1, 2021

The film easily could have fallen into cheap camp otherwise. It doesn't. MacKay and Depp make it easy to buy into the premise without judgment.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 30, 2021

Despite some initial hurdles, the odd flirtation with humor, and some overwrought moments, MacKay sells Jacob utterly.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 23, 2021