Another Earth
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: July 22, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneJul 20, 2011
What I can say is if you're flesh and blood, and have ever suffered a substantial loss, you will be moved by Another Earth. And also renewed. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJul 21, 2011
It's an ambitious premise and a risky approach, but Cahill and his cast execute it beautifully. Read full review
90
TimeMary PolsJul 23, 2011
The looming presence of that planet and its possibilities turns Another Earth into a metaphysical treat, with influences that range from Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Double Life of Veronique and Blue" to Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris." It's the most soulful art movie of the summer. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttJul 2, 2011
The best science fiction tells stories about people in extraordinary environments or situations that serve to open up the vast, still largely unexplored terrain of the human heart. Mike Cahill's Another Earth is science fiction at its best. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 29, 2011
What's impressive is how well this film joins its parts into a whole. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 21, 2011
Another Earth proves compellingly that science, intellect and emotion can coexist in mesmerizing synchronicity on the big screen. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 17, 2011
Another Earth is stealthily effective, with silences often counting more than words. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerDec 5, 2011
A small, personal indie with a huge cinematic and intellectual appetite. It may be too lo-fi for some tastes but it sparks the brain and moves the heart. It also introduces Marling as a bright new star - singular. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelAug 6, 2011
Shot in verite style with handheld cameras and rule-breaking quick cuts, Cahill's film moves slowly between moments of heartache and quiet beauty. Read full review
80
NPRElla TaylorJul 22, 2011
More than anything, though, Another Earth is an impressive calling card for Brit Marling, who wrote and produced the movie with Cahill, a classmate from Georgetown University. Marling also steals the movie as Rhoda Williams. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 21, 2011
Quietly and movingly out of this world. Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 19, 2011
Another Earth is a movie you take home and write your own ending to. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanAug 18, 2011
The deliberate editing and quirky cinematography (both done by Cahill) sometimes seem at odds with each other but never get in the way of the story's honesty. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 12, 2011
It's easy to forget that you're watching a sci-fi film at all. That's because it's just a shade or two from not even being a sci-fi film. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 10, 2011
The wildly improbable set-up is merely the jumping off point for an exploration of grief, guilt and redemption. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Dave McGinnJul 28, 2011
It's refreshing to see a movie tackling difficult ideas, even if, like the new Earth, it sometimes feels like the filmmakers have their heads up in the clouds. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 28, 2011
Another Earth has heft - emotionally, intellectually. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 21, 2011
Another Earth offers imagination and provocation to spare. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnJul 2, 2011
The result is an uneven drama with genuine intellectual heft that often outshines its flaws. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 21, 2011
This small-scale film has more outsize ideas than it could possibly manage. Yet Mike Cahill's debut feature exerts a gravitational pull out of proportion to its size through powerful performances, a lyrical spirit, a succession of arresting images and a depth of conviction that sweeps logic aside. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangJul 2, 2011
Out there, to say the least, but rescued from risibility by its well-matched lead performances and crazy low-budget ambition. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 28, 2011
Another Earth is being sold as an indie sci-fi drama, but that does both the movie and its proper audience a disservice. This muted story of atonement, forgiveness, and parallel universes is more of an extended metaphor - a work of earnest poetry rather than science. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoJul 18, 2011
The hanging specter of a phantom planet puts a lot of pressure on Another Earth, a resolutely small parable of grief that often feels menaced by its big-idea concept. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 31, 2011
Marling is the star, and the core of the film's concern. She also co-wrote it with the director, Mike Cahill, yet the result comes across not as a vanity project but as a sobering study of the thoroughly dazed and confused, with a mind-ripping final shot. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 21, 2011
A coming-of-adulthood story that improbably blends a plaintive drama with romantic longing and far-out science fiction. Read full review
55
MovielineS.T. VanairsdaleJul 21, 2011
Ultimately just another less-accomplished entry in the booming cinema of catharsis, your average gorgeous-teen-astrophysicist-meets-schlubby-bereft-composer-whose-family-she-wiped-out-in-a-drunk-driving-accident-on-the-night-they-discovered-another-planet tale. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 12, 2011
This is another one of those phony movies in which a character burrows into someone else's life without telling them she's an axe murderer, a man or a vampire. Not only that, we're supposed to hope that they get it on. I was hoping that everyone involved would get hit by an asteroid. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 4, 2011
As large as Earth Two looms - literally - in the frames of Mike Cahill's film, so do its implications. It's one big, honking metaphor, as much as a special effect. As a symbol of second chances, it's as intriguing as it is frustratingly obvious. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliJul 28, 2011
In its most touching moments, the film achieves a kind of sad and waltzing rhythm all its own. In its least, it's precious and plodding; the metaphoric link between grief and housework drags like a mop on a bathroom floor. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickJul 22, 2011
Even with a clever final twist straight out of "The Twilight Zone," this crummy-looking two-hander is a tough sit. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 6, 2011
Shaky science fiction shacks up with a corny redemption tale. Read full review
40
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJul 19, 2011
Unable to organically incorporate their Big Ideas into the narrative, the filmmakers lazily lay them on top, leaving the exposition of Another Earth's structuring fantasy to a blanket of background voiceover. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 20, 2011
It's one of those stultifying aftermath-of-
a-car-crash movies. Read full review
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