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Where the Crawdads Sing

The 100 Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

2022

Olivia Newman

Daisy Edgar-Jones, Garret Dillahunt, David Strathairn, Harris Dickinson ...

6.1

2,443

Mystery. Thriller. Drama. Romance A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man she was once involved with.

	Media	Author	Review
		Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter	"'Where the Crawdads Sing' is the kind of tedious moral fantasy that fuels America’s misguided idealism (...) The narrative depends heavily on racial and gender stereotypes and classist thinking to operate"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"An unconvincing, melodramatic affair that only occasionally locates the story’s mournful heart"
		Anna Bogutskaya Time Out	"Not even an on-form Daisy Edgar-Jones can save this snoozy Southern gothic (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"A mystery as dark as it is romantic (...) The ending is a genuine jaw-dropper, and while I wouldn’t go near reveling it, I’ll just say that this is a movie (...) that has the courage of its outsider spirit."
		Adrian Horton The Guardian	"[It] remains faithful to the fantasies of the book, for better and mostly for worse (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		David Ehrlich IndieWire	"Anchored by a strong Daisy Edgar-Jones performance (...) 'Where the Crawdads Sing' works best when it embraces its own true nature as a popcorn movie"
		Carlos Aguilar The Wrap	"[It] feels entirely trapped in bygone tropes with little effort to reinvent them."
		Alyse Wax Collider	"'Where the Crawdads Sing' is the kind of movie your mom will love (...) a weirdly uncomfortable movie, on many different levels"
		Peter Travers ABC News	"'Where the Crawdads Sing' falls short of the book's magic"
		Leigh Monson AV Club	"It’s as faithful an adaptation as could likely be managed (...) the biggest faults of 'Where The Crawdad Sings' are ultimately the ones it inherited from the book"
		Katie Walsh Los Angeles Times	"Though it is faithful, 'Where the Crawdads Sing' is lacking the essential character and storytelling connective tissue that makes a story like this work — an adaptation such as this cannot survive on plot alone"
		Belen Edwards Mashable	"Beautiful shots of marshland and a solid leading performance by Daisy Edgar-Jones aren't enough to save 'Where the Crawdads Sing' from itself."
		Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Overblown and tedious Southern drama"
		Brianna Zigler The Playlist	"Fans of the book will most likely enjoy the film (...) Sadly, I am not one of these people"
		Christy Lemire rogerebert.com	"For a film about a brave woman who’s grown up in the wild, living by her own rules, 'Where the Crawdads Sing' is unusually tepid and restrained (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Rachel Labonte Screen Rant	"As a movie, 'Where the Crawdads Sing' stumbles a bit in its transition from page to screen, though it is aided by a great lead performance (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"
		Derek Smith Slant	"The film spins a soapy yet dramatically inert and often tone-deaf yarn about societal rejection and female empowerment (…) Rating: ★½ (out of 4)"
		Hoai-Tran Bui SlashFilm	"The film is a self-serious, but consciously aesthetically pleasing, adaptation of a, frankly, silly soap opera"
		Siddhant Adlakha IGN	"As an adaptation of her novel, the movie is too plain and indecisive to make a lasting impact"
		Sophie Butcher Empire	"You never quite buy the young, thin, beautiful, white Kya as a true outsider (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Daisy Edgar-Jones was a lockdown smash for her excellent performance in 'Normal People', and she deserved better for her Hollywood debut than this uncompromisingly terrible southern gothic schmaltzer (…) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"
		Todd McCarthy Deadline	"Unfortunately, this ripe-for-adaptation melodrama has been flattened, de-juiced and otherwise withered into a massively banal and flavorless porridge"
		Hagan Osborne The Curb	"While certain elements of the film leave more to be desired, there are some effective applications of symbolism present in Newman’s wetland vision"

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