[2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[3] Variety's Justing Chang wrote "a dramatically limited but strangely powerful portrait of a young would-be terrorist who sets out to blow herself up in Times Square," adding, "By turns frustrating and impressive in its austerity, Julia Loktev’s experimental first feature is too radically minimalist to find much of an audience beyond the festival circuit, although those willing to stick with it may find it an authentically harrowing if not especially revealing experience.

'"[5] "Determination, rage, uncertainty, bravado, modesty and panic are among the feelings that flicker over her slightly feral features," Holden wrote.

[6] "Williams emits a sort of radiance...she has an unforgettable face, the way women in certain European art movies do," Wesley Morris wrote for The Boston Globe.

"There's nothing conventional about it: Her dark, tired-seeming eyes recede into their sockets, her mouth and nose are almost beak-like, drawn into a sort of permanent frown...in the film's agonizing last 20 minutes, her severe and opaque countenance opens into a universe of transparent emotional distress.