Alma & The Wolf (2025)

Score: 2 / 10
Category: Movie
Platform: HBO Max

One-line verdict

A film that desperately wants to feel smart and unsettling, but collapses into incoherence the moment you try to understand it.

What worked

• The acting is serviceable. On a performance level alone, it’s not the problem.
• There are moments where the film looks like it’s building toward something clever or unsettling.
• Certain stylistic choices, including long sequence shots and back-and-forth staging, show clear intent rather than incompetence.

What broke

• The story makes no sense, and not in a deliberate or rewarding way.
• There is no meaningful explanation for the wolf, the goat, or Alma. These elements are introduced as if they matter, then left hanging without payoff.
• The more you think about the plot, the less it holds together. Instead of clarifying on reflection, it actively unravels.
• Violence and gore feel unnecessary and excessive, adding shock but no understanding.
• The film mistakes confusion for depth, and symbolism for substance.

What others are saying

• Reactions are polarising, with some viewers praising its “weirdness” or ambiguity.
• Others echo the same frustration: the film gestures toward meaning without ever earning it.
• Praise tends to focus on atmosphere and style rather than narrative clarity or payoff.

The section below discusses plot details.

Why this didn’t work for me

I can see what this movie wants to be. It wants to be one of those films where everything clicks at the end and you go, “oh, that’s it.” The problem is, nothing ever clicks.

From what I can gather, Accord is a drunk who murdered his own son and lives in a delusion where he believes he’s a police officer in a small town. But even that reading feels flimsy. The film never commits to explaining its own reality, and it doesn’t provide enough internal logic to let the audience do the work either.

Instead of ambiguity that invites interpretation, this feels like a mess that asks the viewer to excuse it as “art.” By the end, there’s no sense of resolution, no coherence, and no reason to care. Any appreciation for what the film is trying to do gets buried under how badly it fails to do it.

This isn’t a 3. It doesn’t come close. A 2 feels fair — not because it’s offensive or provocative, but because it fundamentally doesn’t work.