Big Sur
Ketchup Entertainment | Release Date: November 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
4
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 31, 2013
Filmed without a trace of sentimentality, Big Sur is an achingly sad last hurrah. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthNov 2, 2013
Big Sur rises and fades, shifts and moves, through movements and melodies, singing a beautifully sad song for an era and a man who lost his way. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 31, 2013
Although no less fawning and indulgent about its self-centered subject, played by Jean-Marc Barr (who also narrates, run-on style), the muted emptiness of the ill-fated sojourn wills its way toward something like existential meaningfulness. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 20, 2013
Michael Polish’s Big Sur offers an elegantly muted take on the midlife ennui of Kerouac’s autobiographical 1962 novel. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweSep 20, 2013
Filming a truly immersive and dimensional adaptation of a Kerouac novel remains an ongoing challenge for any filmmaker, but Polish’s film comes closer than most, while adding another layer of complexity to the author’s venerable reputation. Read full review
63
Washington PostJohn DeForeOct 31, 2013
A beautiful and sometimes affecting film that (appropriately, some would say) has as much difficulty connecting with the world before it as its protagonist does. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 31, 2013
Some of the performances -- Mitchell, Fischler and especially Lucas -- are lively, but Barr never gets under Kerouac's skin to show the pain of an artist who can't hold his life together. It's a tragedy, played entirely on the surface. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 30, 2013
Nobody’s given the opportunity to do much more than brood prettily and occasionally shout carpe diembromides into the pounding surf. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 1, 2013
But with Kerouac declaring that “the only thing that matters is the conceptions in my own mind,” we’re still left waiting for the filmmaker who can take us there. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonOct 29, 2013
Not exactly a hagiography, Polish's film isn't a tragedy, either -- it's just an uneventful afternoon spent with a dozing rummy. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasOct 28, 2013
The viewer is informed of a world of chaos, obsession, and irresolution, but has no cinematic means of accessing or understanding it. Read full review
30
The DissolveNathan RabinOct 31, 2013
Despite the parade of pretty images and lovely scenery, Big Sur stubbornly fails to cohere into a real movie; instead, it feels like an illustrated novel full of words, ideas, and images, but devoid of structure or characterization. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedOct 29, 2013
The film has a restless, nomadic quality similar to Kerouac’s lifestyle, but there’s no there there. Read full review
20
Time OutNick SchagerOct 29, 2013
Edited to ribbons so that every peripheral player — Kate Bosworth, Radha Mitchell, Josh Lucas, Henry Thomas — is even more one-dimensional than Kerouac himself, it’s a work that accurately expresses the awfulness of narcissistic self-destruction, and nothing else. Read full review
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