After the Storm
Film Movement | Release Date: March 17, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TheWrapTricia OlszewskiMar 17, 2017
Talk of accepting truths and moving on will knot your stomach; inevitably, you’ll reflect on your own station in life and weigh whether or not you feel like Ryota, who tells his son, “I’m not who I want to be yet.” And isn’t such evocation the point of all art? With this measure in mind, Kore-eda has created a masterpiece. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 16, 2017
Kore-eda is too scrupulous a filmmaker to prescribe Ryota an easy redemptive arc or happy ending. Nonetheless, the lingering optimism that suffuses After the Storm’s closing scenes is honestly achieved; nothing on the surface has changed, but on a deeper level something has. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMar 14, 2017
I walked out of After the Storm wanting to be a better person — and further convinced that Hirokazu Kore-eda isn't just one of the world's best filmmakers, but one of its most indispensable artists. Read full review
100
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 21, 2016
This is Kore-eda at his very best, facing up to the hardest truths with honesty and a nervous laugh — uncomfortable, invigorating, and ultimately cleansing, like the cinema’s equivalent of a cold shower. And I mean that in the best way possible. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 21, 2016
No director working today observes family life with such delicacy and care, or is so unstintingly generous with what they find. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMar 17, 2017
Hirokazu Kore-eda may only make good movies, but After the Storm is one of his best. Read full review
90
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMar 15, 2017
Mr. Kore-eda, whose most noteworthy family dramas include “Still Walking” (2009) and “Like Father, Like Son” (2014), works in a quiet cinematic register, and the slightest error in tone could upend the whole enterprise. Slow-paced, sad, rueful and sometimes warmly funny, After the Storm is one of his sturdiest, and most sensitive, constructions. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMay 21, 2016
This bittersweet peek into the human comedy has a more subtle charm than flashier films like the director’s child-swapping fable Like Father, Like Son, but the filmmaking is so exquisite and the acting so calibrated it sticks with you. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 22, 2017
Like all of Kore-eda’s films, After the Storm ends with a jolt; not in the filmmaking, but in the way you realize that you were completely lost in the lives of these people and that, as the lights go up, you’ll miss them. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 6, 2017
A small-scale, satisfying human drama that backs gradually into larger matters. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 17, 2017
After the Storm is one of our best filmmaker’s best films. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 16, 2017
Koreeda takes his usual languid pace to allow the story to breathe, and along the way comes across a quiet number of delicate epiphanies, each more satisfying than the last, and all aided by a strong Abe performance. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 26, 2016
After the Storm is a film that invites you in, and clears a space for you at the dinner table while you shuck off your shoes in the hallway. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleJun 2, 2017
After the Storm is undoubtedly one of Kore-eda's best. Read full review
80
Total FilmSimon KinnearJun 1, 2017
The characters are unfailingly polite, whatever their grievances, and there isn’t a single false note in this generous, affectionate portrait of people making the best of their situation. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonMay 30, 2017
Kore-eda’s insight is so unflinching, his affection for his characters so intimate and sure, that not a moment here feels wasted. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 16, 2017
[Kore-eda's] latest film, though, has a special warmth and grace. It unfolds slowly, sneaks up on big questions about intertwined mysteries of family and personal destiny, and pretty much answers them, though the biggest question for Ryota is whether he’ll be changed by what he learns. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 21, 2016
Like Kore-eda’s 2008 family drama Still Walking, this is a film which is interested in the architecture, both emotional and physical, of the family home. Read full review
80
VarietyMaggie LeeMay 21, 2016
Such is the finesse of Kore-eda’s script that it builds to neither the vehement confrontation nor the comforting reconciliation that melodrama decrees. Instead, it imparts those rare, liberating moments when characters revert to their most honest selves and pluck up the courage to express their deepest, albeit unattainable wishes. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 11, 2020
Kore-eda peels away the layers of this family and Ryôta’s story building towards the latest typhoon headed their way. It is the third act’s riding out of that storm that this light and faintly despairing tale, with its almost-comic anti-hero, turns poignant. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMar 30, 2017
After the Storm has what the Japanese call mono no aware, which translates as “the pathos of things.” It is a film that is aware of the of the transient, impermanent nature of life. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 17, 2017
There are times in this lovely, complacent movie about uncomplacent circumstance when I wanted to be shaken up, and wasn’t. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelApr 20, 2017
Abe’s performance is compelling in the way it captures the gap between who Ryota has become and how he wants to see himself, and Japanese screen veteran Kirin Kiki gives a terrifically nuanced turns as his again mother, pulled between the disappointments of the past and a fierce determination to find joy in her present. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 15, 2017
An exercise in mellowness, right down to the snatches of tinkly-twinkly sentimental music. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 30, 2017
[A] solid yet subtly sphinxlike new drama from filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJames LattimerMar 13, 2017
The stock character types that Hirokazu Kore-eda employs across the board are pretty much open books from the start. Read full review
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