Z for Zachariah 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Z for Zachariah has the tasteful dullness of a movie too afraid to make a choice in any direction. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This dull, slow movie represents a major step back for director Craig Zobel, who looked like he was ready for the big time with his deeply unsettling "Compliance" a couple of years ago. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A ponderous snooze with more pregnant pauses than a season's worth of Harold Pinter revivals. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: The film remains strangely inert, and the romantic triangle at the story's center never gives off any real passion or heat. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: As a director, Zobel has built his career on taking bold chances, but signing on to helm an aggressively re-conceived, dramatically tepid take on a beloved novel wasn't his savviest move. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: In delicately nuanced fashion, it dances around such topics as trust, the need for companionship and the difficulties of being a woman. It also hits upon the fact that even in the most dire circumstances, humans always will have conflict. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: The triangle that "Zachariah" sketches among the last three folks on earth is all too human. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Director Craig Zobel has something more contemplative in mind than the usual end-times blood lust...[It] is not concerned with the panicky desperation of the newly primitive but what happens after comfort and routine has set in with this new world order. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times: An intriguing set-up yields a disappointingly ponderous payoff in Craig Zobel's post-apocalyptic drama, "Z for Zachariah." Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Robbie exudes confidence, mournfulness and delicate decency in a role that could easily have been a sci-fi cliche. What she does here is subtle and beguiling. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: This minimalist but deeply affecting morality play slowly tugs you in. Read more

Molly Eichel, Philadelphia Inquirer: The world has ended. Streets are deserted. Humanity is all but wiped out. Haven't we heard this one before? Turns out, we haven't. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Craig Zobel's film asks what form humanity takes when there's (practically) no one looking. The three actors work wonders and raise provocative questions about reinventing the planet in microcosm. Read more

Aisha Harris, Slate: Zobel and Modi have crafted a thoughtful narrative about the experience of navigating and attempting to accommodate others' personalities. Read more

Julia Cooper, Globe and Mail: The drama brims with religious allusion and questions of how faith manifests in a world without hope. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: It's the three actors that make the film work, particularly Australian actress Robbie who follows a small-yet-effective role in The Wolf of Wall Street with more nuanced and ultimately powerful work. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Feels like a genuine rarity: an American movie that doesn't tell you what to think or how to feel when the credits start rolling. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Did the movie version really require the wholesale addition of Captain Kirk? Chris Pine, as a swarthy traveler, turns the happy duo into a tense threesome, and suddenly we're having Sparksian conversations in the breakfast nook over coffee. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: Experiencing Z for Zachariah is a bit like rummaging around in someone else's mind for 90 minutes, and we mean that in the best way. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: The story might have evolved into your ho-hum exploration of romantic and sexual jealousy, but Zobel and his trio of performers dig into something murkier and more primal. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Although the movie stops at the book's two-thirds mark, the abrupt ending is a killer. It creeped me out and then laid me out. For days I couldn't get out of my head the way it wreaked havoc on my sympathies. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The acting is strong, with Robbie and Ejiofor turning in performances that feel powerfully authentic, even in moments of ethical confusion. Maybe especially in moments of ethical confusion. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: [A] daringly spare film, directed by Craig Zobel from a fine screenplay by Nissar Modi. Read more