3 Faces
Kino Lorber | Release Date: March 8, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 8, 2018
It’s a film full of delicate metaphors and gentle humour – the locals have elaborate rules for giving a warning honk of the horn on their one-track road but refuse a simple suggestion to widen it – and meanders, sometimes a bit elliptically, to its conclusion. Read full review
90
Film ThreatLorry KiktaMar 8, 2019
It’s a funny, sad, and ultimately joyous journey into a world that most Westerners will not understand. It highlights the resilience of people, particularly women, in a place where the system has set them up for failure. Yet somehow, they strive, survive, and sometimes succeed. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 7, 2019
An immersive, pleasurably intelligent movie, one that weds documentary naturalism and melodramatic excess with formalist rigor. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyMar 8, 2019
Panahi can’t help but flaunt optimism wherever he sees it — he lets it rise above it all despite the odds. Read full review
85
TheWrapSteve PondMay 21, 2018
Three Faces is typical of the canny director’s output in the way it’s modest but profound, leisurely but urgent, a portrait of a country disguised as a meandering road movie. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 1, 2019
And Shahrzad, a huge star from the 1960s and 70s who was banished after the revolution, is present as a voice rather than a face in the film, but is no less significant for the fact that she is not seen by the camera. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 28, 2019
To describe 3 Faces as a multi-generational portrait would not be entirely inaccurate, though it would risk divesting the movie of its quotidian poetry, its deep reserves of mystery and its rich rewards for an open-hearted audience. Sometimes, as these characters understand by journey’s end, it’s important to go and discover the truth for yourself. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 14, 2018
3 Faces can sometimes feel like a whimsical doodle without much forward momentum. But that placidness belies a certain degree of melancholic resignation on Panahi’s part, for himself and his homeland. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMay 14, 2018
The three main characters are all vividly sketched. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 8, 2019
Panahi, who defied a filmmaking ban from the Iranian government to make this, is a director always worth supporting. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 1, 2019
It’s filled with wry laughs, comical rural “types” and over-the-top, fame-craving desperation worthy of an over-the-top slapback. Read full review
75
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 15, 2018
The director’s characteristic humanism and rejection of easy judgments suffuses the film with sincere empathy – refreshingly, he acknowledges his own role in the entrenched patriarchal culture he’s critiquing, both as a man and film director. As such, when 3 Faces closes on a bittersweet note, the hopeful gesture of its closing image feels neither cheap nor unearned. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSam C. MacMay 14, 2018
Whenever Panahi's architecturally rigorous study of the self, society, and artistic communion threatens to get too self-conscious or loaded, the filmmaker tends to leaven the tension with humor and gentle irreverence. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 14, 2018
Even as Three Faces staggers along, it maintains the unique blend of introspection and intrigue that defines this singular director’s talent. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 14, 2018
Panahi has frequently blurred the line between cinema and reality; here, he builds the search for that line into the work itself, even flirting, playfully, with a self-critique. Read full review
70
Little White LiesTrevor JohnstonFeb 14, 2022
Perhaps a little slacker than some of his previous outings, but Panahi’s commitment and courage shine through. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 15, 2018
Although 3 Faces is far from Panahi’s best work, it’s still a solid primer on how much a skilled filmmaker can achieve with very few resources. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 14, 2018
Panahi keeps everything as softly spoken as his own onscreen presence and yet some of those quiet observations are devastating. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 14, 2018
Jafar Panahi has here created a quietly engaging quasi-realist parable, part of his ongoing and unique creative cine-autobiography, full of intelligence and humility and a real respect for women and for female actors. It is gentle, elusive, and redolent of this director’s mysterious Iranian zen. Read full review
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