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The Better Angels
Directed by
A.J. Edwards
PG
2014
1h 35m
Drama
,
History
,
and more
6.0
44%
43%
6.2
Add to Watchlist
The story of Abraham Lincoln's childhood in the harsh wilderness of Indiana and the hardships that shaped him, the tragedy that marked him for ever and the two women who guided him to immortality.
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Where to Watch The Better Angels
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Cast of The Better Angels
Diane Kruger
Sarah Lincoln
Jason Clarke
Tom Lincoln
Brit Marling
Nancy Lincoln
Wes Bentley
Mr. Crawford
Braydon Denney
Abraham Lincoln
Cameron Mitchell Williams
Dennis
McKenzie Blankenship
Sally
Ryan McFall
Johnny
Madison Stiltner
Matilda
Bruce Bayard
Oncle Samuel
Veanne Cox
Tante Elizabeth
Robert Vincent Smith
Révérend Elkins
Adam Tetters
Ben
Ida Joy
Jeune élève
Riley Brutvan
William
Alana Collopy
Lucia
Byron Bradley
Josiah
Joe Webber
Charles
Gary Sundown
Johnny Kongapod
Joseph McKenna
Étranger
The Better Angels Ratings & Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
Jeff Labrecque
It feels more like a poem. Or, at times, a symphony. But it's much less effective as an actual movie.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
"God tells truths in parables," someone says - a line that Edwards most likely aspires to take possession of, as if his poetic, pictorial parable had its own truths to tell.
Boston Globe
Peter Keough
Had Terrence Malick taken a shot at making a Ken Burns movie, it would probably have turned out better than "The Better Angels," A.J. Edwards's humorless, pretentious black-and-white tone poem about a very young Abe Lincoln.
Seattle Times
John Hartl
Narrators tell us what to feel, but there's something hollow at the center. The tone of the picture seems perversely oblique.
Washington Post
Stephanie Merry
Just as those around Lincoln grow frustrated by his obscurity, so may audiences watching "The Better Angels."
James on screenS
Caryn James
On paper, this lyrical, black-and-white rendering of Lincoln's backwoods boyhood may seem pompous, but it is beautiful, poetic and graceful, with its own flowing rhythm.
Variety
Peter Debruge
Whereas other directors have presented the man in mythic terms, "The Better Angels" renders young Abe relatable, provided auds are willing to put themselves on the film's wavelength.
RogerEbert.com
Glenn Kenny
"The Better Angels," as pictorially beautiful and emotionally evocative as it is, is so bereft of conventional narrative momentum that you have to consider it a miracle it got made.
Los Angeles Times
Michael Rechtshaffen
All that extensively researched authenticity and soul-stirring cinematography go only so far in establishing a compelling connection to a specific time and place.
New York Times
Manohla Dargis
The sense of predestination hangs heavily over the movie, but not a sense of life.
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
If you succumb to "The Better Angels," the effect is like falling into a gorgeous photograph, but that also means the narrative in this arthouse film is oblique and sketchy.
AV Club
Mike D'Angelo
It comes across as an apprentice work, not unlike the second-rate versions of paintings created by students who would work at the side of Renaissance masters.
Paste Magazine
Tim Grierson
"The Better Angels" is a striking attempt to show us Lincoln's childhood in a fresh way, which is why its miscalculation is all the more disappointing.
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Rendering the life of young Abraham Lincoln as a tone poem, "The Better Angels" sags under the weight of its own resolute earnestness.
The Dissolve
Scott Tobias
Though quiet and slow, the film flows like a brook.
Village Voice
Abby Garnett
Kruger and Clarke do their best to look steadfast with a camera swooping around them like a wounded bird, but there's no rescuing this imprecise family portrait from its own impulses toward obscurity.
TheWrap
James Rocchi
Those who appreciate Mr. Edwards' appropriation of Mr. Malick's approach will find "The Better Angels" lives up to its aspirations; those with no patience for shots of wind on crops will find the film crashes on the sharp-rocked shore of its pretensions.
HitFix
Guy Lodge
A.J. Edwards is a student of Terrence Malick, and he doesn't care who knows it.
The Hollywood Reporter
Todd McCarthy
Thanks to its indelible image-making and dedication to what could be termed lyrical realism, The Better Angels notably succeeds in creating a vivid impression of the physical and familial circumstances that crucially shaped [Lincoln's] heart and mind.
Slant Magazine
James Lattimer
Even taking into consideration the fact the A.J. Edwards edited To the Wonder, it's hard to recall a film so immensely and reductively in thrall to the work of another director.
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