35 Shots of Rum
Cinema Guild | Release Date: September 16, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
92
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
Claire Denis, not always an easy director, is in top form here directing an almost all-black cast with grace and delicacy. For the happy few, this is French art house cinema at its unpretentious best. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
In its modest scope and mellow tone, 35 Shots of Rum resembles Olivier Assayas’s "Summer Hours," another recent film by a French director who has sometimes trafficked in provocation and extremity. Both movies embed extraordinary thematic richness within a simple, almost anecdotal narrative framework, and both achieve a rare eloquence about the state of the world by means of tact and reticence. Read full review
100
Time OutDavid Fear
To fall in love with it, viewers only have to be receptive to a movie that examines the ties that bind with grace, wit and depth. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film evolves into a simple, intimate, acutely emotional portrait of a family reaching a painful crossroads. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
For 20 years, Claire Denis has been among France's foremost filmmakers with her acute yet subtle observations of the ebbs and flows within relationships. Her perception and understanding seem to grow only richer over the years, and her newest film, 35 Shots of Rum, is surely one of her finest -- and thereby one of the best films of the year. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
35 Shots of Rum is visual poetry, but poetry that examines the human condition with insight and illumination. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
You can live in a movie like this. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin Wilson
Involves the gradual revelation of the hopes, fears and insecurities of well-observed characters. Read full review
90
VarietyJay Weissberg
Claire Denis’ latest may appear whisper-thin on the surface, yet it’s marvelously profound, illuminating the love between a father and daughter but also highlighting the difficulty of relinquishing what most people spend a lifetime putting into place. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
35 Shots is Denis's warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two's extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
It's a beautiful picture but very quietly so, and definitely not for the ADHD set. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Denis -- who has called the film a tribute to the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu -- keeps dialogue to a minimum as she delicately examines how immigration is changing the face of France. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
I liked these characters, and suddenly not having them in my life anymore, simply because Denis has decided to start the closing credits, devastated me. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Superbly played and realised, this stays with you. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
There is never a shortage of options if you're looking for an intimate foreign drama about family bonds. But the eloquent insights of director Claire Denis stand alone. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The French actor Alex Descas is mesmerizing in 35 Shots of Rum, where he plays a metro conductor. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
Hushed minimalism is a rare and appealing quality in the cinema these days, but so little happens in 35 Shots of Rum that I'm hard-pressed to describe the plot. It doesn't exactly have one. Read full review
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