A Ciambra
Sundance Selects | Release Date: January 26, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 26, 2018
What a rush of storytelling energy and style. Read full review
80
TheWrapDave WhiteFeb 2, 2018
A Ciambra is intimate and documentary-like, approaching and then backing away from larger issues of marginalized and immigrant communities, showing rather than preaching, and most importantly, prioritizing Pio’s adolescent face and the way his eyes scrutinize his surroundings as they constantly look for opportunity, weak spots to break through. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 1, 2018
Amid the verisimilitude of location shooting and a cast of mostly nonprofessionals playing fictionalized versions of themselves, Carpignano inserts poetic touches. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 1, 2018
Jonas Carpignano’s second feature — and Italy’s entry for this year’s foreign-language Oscar — is shockingly alive, startlingly accomplished and remarkably acute. It’s a neo-realist study of a kid with special gifts for leadership, daring and friendship. And for stealing everything in sight. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJan 18, 2018
Mr. Carpignano has a shrewd sense not only of the character’s psychology, but also of the audience’s expectations, and our tendency to confuse realism with magical thinking. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJan 26, 2018
A Ciambra is not big on plot, instead relying on its main character and his dangerous and frustrating escapades to generate empathy. Read full review
75
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 27, 2017
One of the great achievements of A Ciambra is how it maps out the food chain of local authorities (both legal and otherwise). Read full review
75
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicMay 27, 2017
While it makes its point half-way into its running time and you start getting the anxious jitters of a film that overstays its welcome, A Ciambra serves the fundamental cinematic purpose of transporting you to another world. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJan 19, 2018
The film treads familiar territory when it’s trying to carve cinema-worthy myth from its semi-fictitious protagonist’s life, but its more impressionistic, painterly moments are what feel truly fresh. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAbbey BenderJan 18, 2018
A Ciambra is at its best when Carpignano captures the textures of everyday life, suggesting the neorealists with his use of nonprofessional actors and on-location shooting. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 28, 2017
Overall, Pio's accelerated passage from adolescence to adulthood is depicted with moving honesty and sensitivity. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonMay 28, 2017
A Ciambra may be a conventional tale of a young man trying to find himself, but the writer-director’s attention to detail enriches that setup. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerFeb 7, 2018
The director avoids turning this into some form of misery tourism, which would be a real risk in less adept hands: yet the story is told with such a uniform tone that it’s hard to remain emotionally engaged. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 27, 2017
Sorely lacking the energy that made “Mediterranea” such a vital shot in the arm, A Ciambra is a half-step backward for Carpignano, whose clear sense of place is too often hampered by shapeless plot. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneJan 22, 2018
First the film inhabits the eye of a storm—which is to say, the storm of Italy’s wretched peripheries—before submitting to the more ersatz cinematic will of filling Pio’s life with beginnings, middles, and ends. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 28, 2017
Creatively speaking, however, A Ciambra is something of a step sideways for the Italian-American filmmaker, consolidating his considerable formal and observational gifts while fumbling a bit as storytelling. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 23, 2018
The result is busy, murky, and remote. It doesn’t have the leftie political clarity of Ken Loach, the purposeful intensity of the Dardenne brothers, or even the character development of Ramin Bahrani’s early features. Read full review
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