young ones movie review

Cast & crew
User reviews

Set in the future when water is hard to find, a teenage boy sets out to protect his family and survive. Set in the future when water is hard to find, a teenage boy sets out to protect his family and survive. Set in the future when water is hard to find, a teenage boy sets out to protect his family and survive.

Jake Paltrow
Nicholas Hoult
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Michael Shannon
56 User reviews
70 Critic reviews
47 Metascore
2 wins & 1 nomination

Top cast 23

Jerome Holm

Ernest Holm

Caleb Moore

Katherine Holm

Calvin Hooyman

Well-dressed man
Water Guard
Border Inspector

Bandit Brother
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia The robot donkey is a Boston Dynamics 'Big Dog'. The company was owned by Google when the movie was made.
Goofs After Ernest shoots the first of the two water thieves, he pumps his shotgun but no spent shell is ejected.

Ernest Holm : Yeah, that is all I am saying. You do not gotta marry her. You don't wanna wait around thinking something is gonna come. Waitin' is a fucking disease. Think something? Feel something? You should *do* something. Alright?

Connections Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Shailene Woodley/Michael Shannon/Eric Church (2014)
Soundtracks Lost Her Love On Our Last Date Written by Conway Twitty & Floyd Cramer © 1972 Performed by Floyd Cramer Published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd. Courtesy of Sony Music

User reviews 56

Art house sci-fi 'must see'.

Dec 28, 2014
How long is Young Ones? Powered by Alexa
October 17, 2014 (United States)
South Africa
United States
Official site
Official site (Japan)
Spier Films
Quickfire Films
See more company credits at IMDbPro
Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes

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Where to Watch

Nicholas Hoult

Kodi smit-mcphee, jerome holm, michael shannon, ernest holm, elle fanning, robert hobbs, caleb moore, david butler, aimee mullins, katherine holm, christy pankhurst, alex mcgregor, david clatworthy, calvin hooyman, liah o'prey, andy mcphee, barry armitage, well-dressed man, ben horowitz, water guard, rachel wood, charles tertiens, border inspector, gideon van schoor, bandit brother, karen snyman, well-dressed woman, vlam beukes, critic reviews.

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User Reviews

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Young Ones Reviews

It's "Mad Max" with less accents, hipster/vintage fashion instead of embarrassing rejects from an S&M catalog, and, regrettably, fewer gallons of movie-compelling fuel to push any envelopes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 12, 2021

It's an ambitious attempt at redefining what has become of the dystopian genre, but despite some good work from Shannon it's a bland, bone dry movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

A lot of intriguing ideas are at work here, but they're jammed around a vapid narrative, making Young Ones unfortunately rather stale and narratively dehydrated.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 6, 2019

Occasionally aimless as it may be, Young Ones works enough conceptually to make the film a worthwhile experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2019

If the characters' journeys were as innovative as the aesthetics, Paltrow would have had a career-defining masterpiece on his hands.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 22, 2019

Combines the best elements of the Western and science fiction into a coming-of-age tale that almost manages to skirt most of each genre's clichés.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2018

From [Michael] Shannon to [Nicholas] Hoult, it's refreshing to see actors most recently associated with big-budget properties like Superman and X-Men get their hands dirty with this gritty little picture.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2017

There's more than enough originality on display to wet the beaks of sci-fi and western fans alike.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 21, 2016

The problem is that the film is in perpetual fast-forward mode... speeding through all its flash and developments.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 7, 2015

An awkward, heady mixture of science-fiction, soap opera, western and Greek tragedy but the quality of the performances and the cinematography render it better than you might have feared.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 1, 2015

It's intermittently arresting but ultimately exasperating.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 30, 2015

There hasn't been as convincing a sci-fi dustbowl story since the original Mad Max.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2015

There are some intriguing concepts at play here, and a striking visual style amid the harsh arid landscapes, yet the slow-burning story boils down to simplistic elements of revenge that feel familiar.

Full Review | Oct 31, 2014

In the hot, dry world of Jake Paltrow's dystopian western, Young Ones, the characterizations are as sparse as the desert foliage.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 31, 2014

The performances are strong. It's rare to find anyone who can hold their own with Shannon on the screen, and here we have three who are under 25... But the story hints at complexities that it never bothers to explore more fully.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 30, 2014

"Young Ones" is a futuristic look at a world with little water, but the most barren thing in this Western-sci-fi flick is the character development.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 30, 2014

Young Ones has some interesting twists but falls short as a reworking of a classic Hollywood oater.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 30, 2014

A dusty, Old Testament tone poem of obsession, savagery and other darker human impulses, Young Ones grapples with the long shadows that sins of the past can cast, and the question as to whether they can be escaped.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.8/10 | Oct 30, 2014