Babyteeth
Reception

Babyteeth (2020)

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External reception

7.2
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 28,918 votes
7.2/10 7,639 votes Synced 2026-08-05
7.2/10 20,838 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 7.1/10 43 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 7.7/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 8.4/10 Synced 2026-07-18
Critics 9.4/10 Synced 2026-07-18
6.9/10 398 votes Synced 2026-07-24

External reviews

Wendy Ide · The Observer (UK) 100.00/100.00

There’s a fearlessness to Murphy’s film-making, a slightly wayward, maverick spirit. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

synced 2026-07-19
Vince Mancini · Uproxx 91.00/100.00

Babyteeth, from director Shannon Murphy and writer Rita Kalnejais, always keeps us half a step off balance. Their film has that a sense of casual naughtiness, a straightforward love of innocent mischief common to the best Australian movies, which in this case serves to leaven the central tragedy.

synced 2026-07-19
Richard Lawson · Vanity Fair 90.00/100.00

Murphy animates Rita Kalnejais’s script—itself an inventive reimagining of cliché—with insistent artistry, announcing her arrival as an ascendant talent.

synced 2026-07-19
Andrew Crump · Paste Magazine 87.00/100.00

This movie is a painful, beautiful and especially true gem.

synced 2026-07-19
Sheila O'Malley · RogerEbert.com 88.00/100.00

You may think you know where it is going. And maybe you're right. But how the film gets there is a very different matter.

synced 2026-07-19
Joe Morgenstern · Wall Street Journal 100.00/100.00

The level of artistry here is out of all proportion to the smallish scale of this Australian coming-of-age drama, which was directed by Shannon Murphy from a screenplay by Rita Kalnejais. Everything seems freshly discovered. Lives connect spontaneously, explosively. Love bursts forth inappropriately, yet unquenchably. Moments come along, not just a few but many, that stop your heart, leave you grinning with delight or watching breathlessly.

synced 2026-07-19
Roger Moore · Movie Nation 88.00/100.00

Like many a first film from someone experienced in episodic TV, Babyteeth gives us a lot to chew on. But in this case, that turns it into the very best kind of emotional roller-coaster, one that wins its laughs and earns its tears. In a year without blockbusters, this Aussie indie marvel stands out — one of the best films of the summer.

synced 2026-07-19
Katie Walsh · Chicago Tribune 88.00/100.00

Murphy isn't afraid to play with color and light and text and music, or to let her characters dance like no one is watching, and often. That energy, embodied in the filmmaking and in the performances, is what puts this coming-of-age film into a class all its own.

synced 2026-07-19
Guy Lodge · Variety 90.00/100.00

Babyteeth works best as an abrasive four-hander, though Murphy’s limber, sensually electric direction leaves the film with little clear evidence of its theatrical origins.

synced 2026-07-19
David Ehrlich · IndieWire 83.00/100.00

Babyteeth is the kind of soft-hearted tearjerker that does everything in its power to rescue beauty from pain.

synced 2026-07-19

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