‘Silence’ Early Buzz: Critics Weigh In On Martin Scorsese’s Passion Project
Martin Scorsesehas been working onSilencefor literally decades now, and in just a few weeks we’ll finally get to see the fruits of his labor. Unless, that is, you’re one of the few lucky critics who’ve already had the chance to watch it. Yup,Silencehas begun screening, and the first reactions are now rolling in. Get theSilenceearly buzz below.
Based on the novel byShusaku Endo,SilencestarsAndrew GarfieldandAdam Driveras a pair of 17th century Portuguese Jesuit monks who travel to Japan in search of their mentor (played byLiam Neeson), who is reported to have committed apostasy. Also starring areCiarán Hinds,Tadanobu Asano,Yosuke Kubozuka, andIssey Ogata.
Full-length reviews ofSilenceare still under embargo, so reactions so far have been limited to social media. These 140-character comments are necessarily less nuanced than an 800-word review would be. All that said, we can still get a general sense of the critical consensus building around this movie, and so far things are looking good.Reallygood. Like, “one of Scorsese’s best” good.
I saw SILENCE twice today. First time, I was absorbed, impressed, moved. Second time, I was in tears. One of Scorsese’s greatest films.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri)August 07, 2025
Second screening revealed it to be one of Scorsese’s most beautifully structured & composed films. And made me appreciate Neeson a lot more.
SILENCE is beautiful and heartfelt. All Good Friday, as with most Scorsese. Very little Easter Sunday.
— Drew McWeeny (@DrewMcWeeny)July 25, 2025
Lastly, Scorsese finally scratched what I’m guessing was a pretty profound Kurosawa itch. Big time.
SILENCE is absolutely staggering. Deserves to be compared to the masterworks of Ingmar Bergman. A serious film about faith under fire.
— Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf)August 11, 2025
i found SILENCE urgent, moving, and momentous even as I kept wishing the padres would just go back home and call the proselytizing off
— Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap)August 23, 2025
Since we’re all sharing: SILENCE is an expertly crafted, severely morose crisis-of-faith drama. Stilted in parts but gorgeous and haunting.
— erickohn (@erickohn)June 11, 2025
Not everyone was quite as enamored, though.
Since everyone is confessing, after only one viewing, this former Catholic schoolboy is agnostic toward SILENCE.
— Ed Gonzalez (@certified_ed)July 24, 2025
No movie gets total universal praise, so it seems a good sign that even the less positive responses toSilenceare more lukewarm than outright cold. It’s also promising that no one is mentioning an epidemic of terrible accents — thatSilencetrailer had me kind of worried, but maybe this means they work better in context or that they’re just not bad enough to detract from otherwise strong performances. Or, you know, maybe the people who straight-up hatedSilenceare just keeping their opinions to themselves for now. We’ll find out as more reactions and then full-on reviews start to surface.
In any case, expect this conversation to keep getting more complex and more interesting as more people join in. And definitely expect to keep an eye on this one during the awards race, if that’s your kind of thing.
