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We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Drama · Thriller · 2011

After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.

Movie details

We Need to Talk About Kevin

“This conversation is long overdue.”

2011 Drama · Thriller 1h 53m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.4 / 10

178.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

74 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

68 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.5 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over We Need to Talk About Kevin?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Mothers' Instinct

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Housewives Alice and Celine are best friends and neighbours who seem to have it all. However, when a tragic accident shatters the harmony of their lives, guilt, suspicion and paranoia begin to unravel their sisterly bond.

Cold in July

Cold in July

Drama · 2014

While investigating noises in his house one balmy Texas night in 1989, Richard Dane puts a bullet in the brain of a low-life burglar. Although he’s hailed as a small-town hero, Dane soon finds himself fearing for his family’s safety when Freddy’s ex-con father rolls into town, hell-bent on revenge.

Cape Fear

Cape Fear

Thriller · 1962

Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.

Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals

Drama · 2016

Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.

Thoroughbreds

Thoroughbreds

Drama · 2018

Lily and Amanda, two high school students living in suburban Connecticut, rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of drifting apart. Together, they devise a plan to kill Lily's abusive stepfather by hiring a lowlife drug dealer.

Cape Fear

Cape Fear

Drama · 1991

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers

Crime · 1994

Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give

Crime · 2018

Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.

Good Boy

Good Boy

Thriller · 2026

Tommy, a volatile 19-year-old, revels in drugs, parties and violence. After getting separated from his friends on a drunken bender, he is abducted by a shadowy figure. He wakes to find himself imprisoned in the basement of a remote Yorkshire house, inhabited by a very strange family. But what unfolds is not what he could possibly expect.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

Drama · 1976

13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives in a New England beach town. Whenever the landlady inquires after Rynn's father, she claims that he's not available. But when the landlady's son, Frank, won't leave Rynn alone, she teams up with a neighbor Mario to maintain the dark family secret that she's been keeping to herself.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Lynne Ramsay

Written by

Rory Stewart Kinnear · Lynne Ramsay

Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton

Eva Khatchadourian

John C. Reilly

John C. Reilly

Franklin Plaskett

Ezra Miller

Ezra Miller

Kevin Khatchadourian, Teenager

Jasper Newell

Jasper Newell

Kevin Khatchadourian, 6-8 Years

Rock Duer

Rock Duer

Kevin Khatchadourian, Toddler

Ashley Gerasimovich

Ashley Gerasimovich

Celia Khatchadourian

Siobhan Fallon Hogan

Siobhan Fallon Hogan

Wanda

Court is in session

Put We Need to Talk About Kevin on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.