Metacritic reviews

The Whaler Boy is an engaging, somewhat fraught look at coming-of-age, sexual awakening, and a broken mind. Onokhov brings the role to mesmerizing life and is supported by a good secondary cast, though they’re playing thinly written parts. But, the epic look and majesty of the visuals carry this drama over any rough waters it occasionally hits.

All that flare and stealthy humor give the familiar sense of a young director attempting to flex every creative muscle at once. Seldom is this advised, yet it’s nothing if not thrilling to watch.

The film is a vivid rumination on the fuzzy border between fantasy and reality.

What The Whaler Boy lacks in story complexity and character depth, it more than makes up in its bone-deep immersion in Lyoshka’s world.

There’s merit in this story, which takes its hero on a circular path back to what anchors him in his world. But the novelty of the setting and the characters doesn’t mean we give the storyteller, who gets lost in the sordid sexual side of life above the Arctic Circle, a pass.