The Guardian by Luke Buckmaster

Perhaps the ultimate value of Nitram has nothing to do with its qualities as an intensely disquieting tone poem – though on that level the film is brilliant, marking another extraordinary achievement from Kurzel, who has a penchant for evoking gut-sinking emotional atmosphere.

The Telegraph by Tim Robey

The acting quartet of Jones, LaPaglia and double Davis is just immense.

Original-Cin by Karen Gordon

Thanks to performances by this formidable cast, this is a riveting film.

The Irish Times by Donald Clarke

A remarkable piece of work.

NME by Paul Bradshaw

Condemned in Australia by two of the victim’s families, there’s an argument to be made for Nitram not being watched at all. But by refusing to paint Nitram as an out-and-out monster, the film’s masterstroke is its compassion. It exposes politicians as the real criminals in an unspeakable tragedy that we still haven’t learned from today.

Paste Magazine by Chloe Walker

Beyond its deeply unnerving character study, Nitram is a stark warning.

Variety by Jessica Kiang

In its quiet respect for the victims’ dignity, its uniformly outstanding performances and in apportioning responsibility only to those who shirked their responsibilities, and deploying a grief-struck compassion toward everyone else, Nitram may come to be recognized as one of the finest exemplars yet of the mass-shooting movie — inasmuch as we can stomach having an entire genre built around the phenomenon.

Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele

It’s with a gut-wrenching helplessness that we watch the ingredients assemble for what has become our seemingly most preventable modern scourge — someone far gone, armed with what’s all too available.

RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico

More than an explainer of motives behind a single person mass shooting, Nitram is a character study wrapped in a tone poem, an unpacking of a man who feels like he has run out of all potential paths to happiness and believes that acts of violence spark action.

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

In the end, Jones’ performance is even more lifelike than I feared — a tortured and astonishingly nuanced rendering of a childlike creature whose id could only be tempered by love for so long before it chose violence instead. And it should go without saying that Kurzel’s fatalistic storytelling so pungently exhumes the pain that led up to that awful day in April 1996 that you can smell the death coming several hours in advance.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

Kurzel is a master at building tension of a tragedy foretold.

TheWrap by Ben Croll

The implications — ethical and otherwise — that the film raises are too vast to be papered over with a closing plea for tighter gun control. The sentiment is fair and true and absolutely valid. But delivered as sober end titles at the end of “Nitram,” one can’t help but notice a certain irony in such small white letters barely hiding a much darker abyss.

The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney

Nitram is an uncommonly tough, taxing film with an aftershock that’s hard to shake.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

Nitram is a hypnotically disquieting movie.

The Film Stage by David Katz

Nitram here pulls off the delicate eye of the needle: it has compassion for Nitram’s circumstances without providing an alibi for his actions.

The Playlist by Caroline Tsai

There’s no doubt that Nitram is a powerful display of filmmaking. But the question remains: Whom is it for?

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

Although Nitram is a thoughtful exploration of mental illness, highlighted by a strong cast, Kurzel can’t fully transcend what is familiar about this handwringing portrait of a ticking time bomb set to go off.