---
title: "Christine: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/christine/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/christine"
critics_score: 64
critics_reviews: 24
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Christine (2016): what the critics said

Critics' score 64 from 24 reviews: 14 positive, 4 mixed, 6 negative.

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 24 January 2016. Festival review. 

Campos delivers a devastating portrait of a woman drowning, with a magnificent performance from Rebecca Hall as the clear highlight and a sensitive exploration of depression and helplessness. The entire ensemble shines in this stripped-down but deeply sympathetic drama.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/christine-sundance-review/5099241.article)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 29 January 2017. 

Antonio Campos gives the true story of the American TV news reporter who killed herself on air its second, superior big-screen telling. Rebecca Hall is extraordinary as the troubled Christine, with the film an elegant, achingly sad study of debilitating depression that confirms Campos as one of the most intelligent filmmakers in US indie cinema.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/29/christine-review-antonio-campos-rebecca-hall-christine-chubbuck)

## IndieWire — Noel Murray

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2016. Festival review. 

The review calls Rebecca Hall's performance mesmerizing and praises the film's vivid and intense qualities as a festival entry. It positions the biopic as a compelling, if challenging, look at its subject's tragic story.

[Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/sundance-review-antonio-campos-christine-starring-a-mesmerizing-rebecca-hall-is-vivid-intense-86145/)

## Little White Lies — Christina Newland

Rating 3/4/3. 26 January 2017. 

Campos humanises Chubbuck with fierce empathy through a portrait of her mental health decline. Rebecca Hall delivers a career-best performance as a physical manifestation of interior torment.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/christine)

## The Telegraph

Rating 4/5. 

The story of Christine Chubbuck is shocking and unfathomably sad, but the film spends time exploring her professional struggles at the news station. Rebecca Hall gives a star turn of huge sensitivity as a crumbling person rather than a concept.

[Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2017/01/26/christine-review-rebecca-hall-gives-star-turn-woman-freefall/)

## Empire — David Parkinson

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 26 January 2017. 

The critic praises Rebecca Hall’s nuanced and intense performance as Christine Chubbuck while noting director Antonio Campos’ restrained approach that avoids exploiting the tragedy. The film is described as a thoughtful reflection on life’s cruelties, media sensationalism and attitudes towards women.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/christine-2-review/)

## The Hollywood Reporter — David Rooney

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 24 January 2016. Festival review. 

The critic highlights Rebecca Hall's fearless, awkward performance as the film's central strength in this chilly, ironic character study of an unstable newscaster. While noting some tonal uncertainty in the first hour, the review praises the unblinking yet understated portrayal of her professional drive and fatalistic awakening.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/rebecca-hall-christine-sundance-review-858756/)

## Los Angeles Times — Justin Chang

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2016. 

Rebecca Hall delivers a brilliant central performance in this skillfully unnerving drama that drifts alongside its subject through the hell of her last weeks. Campos builds a persuasive if not airtight case for why Chubbuck decided on her shocking course of action while examining image consumption in the pre-digital era.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-christine-review-20161017-snap-story.html)

## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2016. 

Antonio Campos’s film tells the sad story of Christine Chubbuck through a startling portrait by Rebecca Hall of a dissatisfied soul struggling in her career and personal life. Campos’s direction is alert but restrained and honors her memory by refusing to feed the craving for sensation.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/christine-2)

## Radio Times — Trevor Johnston

Rating 3/5. 

The sympathetic portrait focuses on Chubbuck's emotional and professional turmoil rather than the incident itself, with a mesmerising Rebecca Hall performance. There's still something uncomfortable and perhaps exploitative here despite the good intentions.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-m8hl9a/christine/)

## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 14 October 2016. 

Rebecca Hall gives a thoroughly possessed performance that draws viewers into the period drama about the TV reporter's final weeks. The director visualizes her isolation persuasively but the film lacks feeling or depth and fails to explain why she pulls the trigger.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/movies/christine-review-rebecca-hall.html)

## Film Comment — Michael Sragow

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 1 September 2016. 

The film fails to gel or clarify its points about a woman's pressures and media sensationalism, coming across as a blood-streaked blur despite compelling moments. Hall's performance is strong but does not reach greatness, and the movie does not fully illuminate the character's inner world.

[Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-christine/)

## RogerEbert.com — Sheila O'Malley

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 14 October 2016. 

The film centers on a riveting performance by Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck that insightfully captures untreated depression and its effects. While the production recreates the 1970s period effectively, the movie does not quite add up and ends on a tepid note.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/christine-2016)

## Slant Magazine — Matt Brennan

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 October 2016. 

The critic argues that the film largely fails to animate Christine Chubbuck’s inner turmoil, instead focusing on broad externalities and flattening her into a cliché. It singles out the exploitative nature of the climax as the film's real raison d’être, ultimately deeming the approach shallow and dishonoring to its subject.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/christine/)

## Time Out — Joshua Rothkopf

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 23 January 2017. 

The film reduces Rebecca Hall to a collection of glares in a weak dramatisation that feels like a snuff version of Anchorman. It spends unseemly time on the gunshot footage and fails to earn its terrible ending.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/christine)

## Deadline — Pete Hammond

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 October 2016. 

Pete Hammond hails Rebecca Hall's Oscar-worthy, towering performance as the fragile reporter Christine Chubbuck in this character study. He singles out for praise her interior, non-melodramatic capture of the woman's essence and the film's wryly amusing depiction of 1970s local TV news.

[Read the review](https://deadline.com/2016/10/christine-review-rebecca-hall-is-oscar-worthy-as-local-news-reporter-on-the-edge-1201834927/)

## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff

Rating B+. 27 January 2016. Festival review. 

The film is a vivid and intense character study and masterful piece of filmmaking thanks to Rebecca Hall's mesmerizing performance, which captures psychological depth and honors the real person behind the infamous act.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/sundance-review-antonio-campos-christine-starring-a-mesmerizing-rebecca-hall-is-vivid-intense-20160127/)

## Eye for Film — Amber Wilkinson

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 March 2016. 

The critic praises the careful scripting that avoids clichés and allows sympathy for the character even in unpleasant moments, while highlighting Rebecca Hall's intense, unflinching performance as a woman desperate for connection who gradually implodes.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/christine-2016-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)

## HeyUGuys — Nathan McVay

Rating 4/5. 2 February 2016. Festival review. 

Rebecca Hall shines in a haunting, slow-burn retelling of Christine Chubbuck's life and decline, delivering a revelation of a performance in this emotionally powerful true story about mental health and journalism.

[Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/christine-review/)

## The Wrap — Robert Abele

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 12 October 2016. 

The critic praises Rebecca Hall's commanding, career-best performance as Christine Chubbuck, noting the film's bleak, unsentimental tone balanced by her psychologically astute portrait. The one thing singled out for praise is Hall's mesmerizing and humanizing portrayal.

[Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/christine-review-rebecca-hall-chubbuck/)

## Paste — Kenji Fujishima

Rating 6.3/10. 13 October 2016. 

Campos’s docudrama exerts a queasy fascination and features a genuinely compelling central figure thanks to Rebecca Hall, even if it doesn’t fully dispel doubts about fictional biopics. The director loosens up stylistically with jaunty montages and an upbeat score.

[Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/christine/christine)

## Consequence

Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 2016. Festival review. 

Rebecca Hall is riveting in a depiction of depression that avoids clichés by approaching it from a lighter, brighter angle with ’70s soft rock and intentional laughs in the first half. Subplots and an overlong runtime undercut the strong start and central performance.

[Read the review](https://consequence.net/2016/01/sundance-film-review-christine/)

## Collider — Matt Goldberg

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 12 October 2016. 

The film fails to find a fresh angle on Christine Chubbuck's tragic story or build meaningfully on her choices, instead reducing her to a victim of mental illness and circumstance. Rebecca Hall delivers an incredible lead performance full of sympathy.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/christine-review-rebecca-hall-chubbuck/)

## The Skinny — Tom Charles

Rating ★★. 27 January 2017. 

Rebecca Hall delivers an impressive and unsettling performance as Christine Chubbuck, making the character feel fully lived in. The director never quite gets to grips with the subject, failing to commit to a clear focus amid attempts at tension and social commentary.

[Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/christine)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/christine.md