At Any Price
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 26, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 24, 2013
This is a brave, layered film that challenges the wisdom of victory at any price. Both of its central characters would slip easily into conventional plot formulas, but Bahrani looks deeply into their souls and finds so much more. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickApr 25, 2013
One of the best films released so far this year, At Any Price signals the arrival of Iranian-American Ramin Bahrani in the ranks of major US directors. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedApr 23, 2013
Flawed but different, well-crafted and consistently powerful, At Any Price is the best film about impoverished farmers in the economic agricultural crisis since Jean Renoir’s "The Southerner." Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 25, 2013
Here's another film, along with "Mud," that's in the American grain, but a genetically conditioned grain of unforgiving fathers and overweening ambition. It's powerful stuff. Read full review
80
NPRElla TaylorApr 25, 2013
Like television's "Breaking Bad," At Any Price is about the slow, insidious corruption of a regular guy, about the rot that grows around him and within him, allowing him to become complicit in a crime of biblical proportions. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 22, 2013
Efron makes hay with his richest role post-High School Musical, making Dean a rural rake with conflicting charisma. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 16, 2013
At Any Price teaches you a lot about the business of corn seeds and genetic manipulation (the stuff is actually fascinating) but what interests director Ramin Bahrani most are the dynamics of this deeply dysfunctional family. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 22, 2013
Beneath all the melodrama, beyond the fine performances, what sets At Any Price apart is the depiction of farming as it is today, the salesmanship, the traditions and ideals abandoned for greater profits and easier work and the ruthless world these patented “high yield” seeds have made. Read full review
75
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMar 3, 2013
Powerful, engaging and, by the finale, moving. And in the end, At Any Price is certainly one of the most impressive reactions to the recent economic crisis (because that’s exactly what it is) that cinema has produced so far. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 26, 2013
For me the breakthrough in At Any Price comes from 59-year-old Dennis Quaid, cementing his character-actor renaissance with what may be the nastiest role of his career. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenApr 23, 2013
Bahrani sometimes pushes too hard as he reaches for big drama. But when the story works, it has a dark power that draws shrewdly upon his two leads' screen charisma. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenApr 23, 2013
If At Any Price overstates its points, they are still worth making. And the hot-wired performances by Mr. Quaid and Mr. Efron drive them home in a movie that sticks to your ribs and stays in your head. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChris PackhamApr 23, 2013
Quaid has a genius for broadcasting conflicting impulses. His body language twists uncomfortably away from his intentions, and his smile is built on the chassis of a cringe. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMar 3, 2013
While the drama comes up a little short in emotional payoff, this is a thoughtful, nuanced film that vividly evokes life in a Midwestern community in which business often trumps friendship. It offers a rueful snapshot of the changing face of a quintessential element of American life. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 17, 2013
By combining formulaic screenwriting and downbeat art house clichés, the ending puts a significant damper on what had been a fascinating character study. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMar 3, 2013
Too late, At Any Price displays the presence of a skilled filmmaker capable of using ambiguous pauses and representational imagery to convey the issues of greed and other covert desires. Until then, it's a slovenly affair only distinguished by its name cast. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 2, 2013
A roughly mixed but interestingly plotted offshoot of "Death of a Salesman." Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 25, 2013
Bahrani is a gifted filmmaker. But he shoots himself in the foot by throwing in a contrived plot device that creates drama at the expense of credibility. Suddenly, we're isolated from a film that had made us believe. It's a breach of trust that comes at too high a price. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna SmithJan 11, 2016
Heather Graham and Maika Monroe add heat to this handsome, slow-burning thriller that lacks the urgency of Bahrani’s previous effort, "99 Homes." Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 23, 2013
The fine cast takes the movie as far as it will comfortably go, until Bahrani gets a case of Great American Play–itis. Read full review
55
Film.comWilliam GossApr 23, 2013
Subtlety is hardly at home here, with Quaid’s especially earnest performance a well-suited mask for Henry’s desperation that nonetheless amplifies the phoniness of the entire enterprise. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 23, 2013
Bahrani is brilliant at small gestures and the way they can speak volumes, but in At Any Price he’s aiming for grand tragedy, and he doesn’t yet have the knack. The pacing of the final act is uncertain; the epic sweep doesn’t arrive. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 17, 2013
In getting so many of the Midwestern details wrong, worldly director Bahrani (“Chop Shop”) teaches an inadvertent lesson to aspiring filmmakers who want to follow his footsteps to the festival circuit: Grow where you’re planted. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 10, 2013
What remains “indie” about At Any Price is that this is an unabashed social-message film – one that plays out like a cross between the agribusiness exposé "Food, Inc." and Arthur Miller’s "Death of a Salesman." Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaMay 9, 2013
Ultimately, At Any Price isn’t terrible, but you can tell that’s hardly the endorsement the filmmakers were seeking. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 2, 2013
At Any Price finally hinges on tragedies, reversals and moral ambiguities of Shakespearean proportions, but they’re delivered ploddingly rather than as the intricate parts of an inevitable whole. At Any Price ultimately suffers from the very phenomenon it laments: Like Henry Whipple’s farm, it feels more mechanistic than organic. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerApr 6, 2013
Alternates between business-world morality play, family drama, and portrait of a local community without ever comfortably integrating these disparate elements into his messy stew. Read full review
42
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 23, 2013
The audacious ending, though unjustified by what had come before, was clearly something mainstream Hollywood would not have tolerated. Yet the 90 minutes in between, a mass of symbols and improbabilities so great they provoke outright laughter, made me wonder whether aliens stole Bahrani’s brain. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 24, 2013
This time out, Bahrani’s push to make a point wins out over the strong sense of character he’s cultivated in his earlier films. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 31, 2013
And therein lies one of the film's most glaring problems. Perhaps that vilification of Big Agro will resonate with farm folk, but it's not the sort of thing that will have many city slickers -- even those who sympathize with the little guys on this issue -- exactly sitting on the edge of their theater seat. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 25, 2013
Most notably, Bahrani offers an emotional depiction of American farming that will leave viewers troubled, as it should. But he loses his footing when it comes to the story itself. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 3, 2013
Some of the acting isn't bad, but the story is messy and unsatisfying with a plot-hole you could drive a dozen combine harvesters through, the ending is an outrageous fudge and the lead performance from Dennis Quaid is strange to say the least. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleLeah ChurnerMay 15, 2013
Though well-researched and competently acted, At Any Price doesn’t risk much, having neither a thesis nor a resolution. Like an awkward hug between estranged relations, there’s a lack of confidence in the execution. Read full review
More From This Movie

61 Critic Reviews

6.2 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL