72
Metascore
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceBilge EbiriVillage VoiceBilge EbiriOnly the Brave is a visually splendid, spellbinding, and surreal movie that also happens to be an emotionally shattering, over-the-top ugly-cry for the ages.
- 90VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeIt’s a gripping and powerfully emotional portrait of yee-haw heroism, pitting a squad of cocky, calendar-purty white dudes against an adversary with no creed or color, just an unquenchable appetite for destruction.
- 86IGNWilliam BibbianiIGNWilliam BibbianiIt’s a straightforward celebration of these heroes’ lives, with a few meaningful revelations along the way, but nothing that will completely blow your mind. These are interesting, likable people who led interesting, exciting lives.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyBecause of its cast of young men being buff and hormonal and good at their jobs, one could say that Only the Brave is the Top Gun of firefighter movies, the difference being that the new film feels like it's embedded in reality rather than in an aerial wet dream.
- 80Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonKosinski settles for a simplistic ending, and the film can’t avoid certain narrative predictability, but for all its conventionality, it’s also brave enough to push against those conventions to find the humanity within its heroes.
- 78TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeAs the story builds, these characters become richer and more complicated — and the stakes become more deadly — resulting in a movie with a delayed but no less potent dramatic punch.
- 67IndieWireEric KohnIndieWireEric KohnThe movie is so cautious about avoiding disaster movie tropes that you can practically sense the resistance to arriving at the tragic finale. The result is a tasteful, well-acted bore, but so out of sync with traditional studio filmmaking it deserves some kudos anyway.
- 60The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanThere is a sincere effort to get beneath the facade of what an extremely fit twentysomething firefighter’s life is like. There’s even a possibility that the film’s first act is intentionally distancing so that the later scenes will have a bigger payoff.
- 60Time OutTime OutDespite the looming threats on display, Kosinski never imbues his movie with a real sense of danger until it’s too late to take the threat seriously. For all of the movie’s flare, Only the Brave lacks dynamism.
- 58The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerThe A.V. ClubJesse HassengerSo squarely old-fashioned that it’s a little jarring to notice that many of the characters have smartphones.