Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One
Kino Lorber | Release Date: December 4, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonDec 17, 2015
It’s as successful as it is ambitious. Read full review
100
CineVueBen NicholsonDec 14, 2015
The individual tales meanings are obscured by wavering tone and formal gymnastics. Read full review
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 3, 2015
With a blend of local lore and partisan fury, theatrical artifice and journalistic inquiry, Gomes single-handedly reinvents the political cinema. Read full review
100
Village VoiceCalum MarshDec 1, 2015
However you enjoy its nearly four hundred minutes, I expect you'll be held rapt till the last second by a film of abundant wit and generous heart. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamDec 21, 2016
One of the princes of arthouse cinema, Miguel Gomes here uses his status to push form and stretch boundaries. Very long but very much worth it. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJan 21, 2016
Labelling his film as a response to the impoverishment of ordinary people caused by the government-imposed austerity of 2013-14, Gomes explains his dilemma brilliantly at the start of Volume 1. How is a well-meaning filmmaker to effectively render the pain of the Portuguese with a documentary set in a town where the shipyard has closed just as alien wasps are attacking local beehives? Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaDec 4, 2015
Part one of "Arabian Nights" has many wild components and even though they adhere to their own set of aesthetic principals, they make for a strange two-hour movie (which is why it’s best to watch it with parts two and three). Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 22, 2015
Miguel Gomes's formal talents, which include a flair for close-ups of elegantly smooth or weathered faces, transcend his soft spot for the didactic. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 3, 2015
Fighting misery means having fun, which is what filmmaking is supposed to be, and, despite its lengths and scope, Arabian Nights always feels handmade. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 3, 2015
Mr. Gomes has a tendency to revel in his own cleverness and to indulge in self-conscious cinematic jokes. He also has a penchant for obscurantism, a habit of confusing ambiguity with depth. Read full review
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