Recensioni di Metacritic

Catch the Fair One is activist filmmaking at its most compelling. Before you run away from the notion, consider this: It doesn’t feel like this tough, relentlessly dark thriller is trying to push some kind of political point, even if so many of its creative choices succeed in doing exactly that.

By the waning minutes, when the film’s glimmering neorealism energy returns, cleansing the abrupt conclusion with a spellbound spirituality, Wladyka has assuredly provided a distinct vision that pulses to potent degrees.

Catch The Fair One is a fantastic and engaging effort across the board. The direction is lean and ably brings forth the emotional truth of each scene.

Although Wladyka foregrounds the movie’s razor-sharp edge—there’s a torture scene midway through that’s especially shocking—there’s a political undercurrent to the story, as well as an emotional one, that give Catch The Fair One uncommon resonance.

Much of Catch The Fair One’s lean authenticity comes from the film’s star (and real-life boxer) Kali Reis, who also gets a story credit on this picture. It’s a propulsive watch but, in common with many of the missing-person stories which inspired it, finds more dead-ends than answers.

Poignant and raw, the film is effective in all the ways it should be. While it does a better job engaging with its revenge-fueled storyline in lieu of a more familial exploration in the wake of the tragedy, the film still manages to land a heart wrenching blow.

Despite — or perhaps because of — how evocative Reis’ performance can be, Catch the Fair One asks her to fill in too many of its blanks.

Wladyka’s film is always gripping, always searching, and always testing the boundaries of its protagonist and its audience.

The nexus of racism, patriarchal power and sexual exploitation gives Catch the Fair One a pulse of righteous anger, and Reis’s charisma — her willingness to show fear as well as resolve — makes Kaylee a magnetic protagonist.

The solemnity of Josef Kubota Wladyka’s film is at odds with the gratuitousness of its violence.