Ultimately a small tale of the struggles of ordinary working-class people against the tourist trade, in a wider political context, the film exists in a deeply contemporary space. Through its filmmaking craft, this debut remarkably operates in a timeless space.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Screen Daily by Demetrios Matheou
That the story doesn’t play like a soap, or indeed a Ken Loach film, is down to the director’s technical and narrative approach.
The engaging and defiantly hand-crafted, offbeat experiment Bait may be black and white, but its insights, thankfully, come in subtly graded shades of gray.
The Observer (UK) by Mark Kermode
It’s a genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation.
A formally dazzling, half-comic portrait of a community struggling against the tides of change.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
What an intriguing and unexpectedly watchable film. Bait is an experiment – and a successful one.
The Film Stage by Rory O'Connor
Jenkin’s script is peppered with comedy, occasionally of a more subtle variety than men dressed as penises—even if that drew the biggest laugh.
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
Jenkin's heavily stylized debut is a disorienting experience at first, but it ultimately creates a boldly Expressionistic mood of uncanny beauty and mesmerizing otherness.