Bright Leaves
First Run Features | Release Date: August 25, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Deeply personal, morally alert, and highly entertaining. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Bright Leaves' takes on a sizable foe -- in this case, big tobacco -- but with such grace and wit that his message never seems medicinal. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
By the end of this reflective, wise, often hilarious movie, you feel as though he (McElwee) has slapped a huge chunk of raw, palpitating life onto the screen. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
While making his new film, he (McElwee) imagines that his boy is looking back at his screen image from some distant point in the future, when McElwee himself is gone. No child of a moviemaker could ask for a more beautiful bequest. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A brilliantly amusing couple of hours. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Another of Charlotte native Ross McElwee's musings about his family, history (this time the tobacco industry) and life. It may be his best. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Witty, thoughtful and illuminating. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
This rich, complex and surprisingly entertaining film also becomes a meditation on filmmaking and the parallels McElwee finds between cinema and, of all things, smoking. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
We are hooked into a low-tech but compelling dynamic -- between relatively static images and McElwee's sensitive, connective narrative. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
McElwee fans will welcome back the wonderful Charleen, his former teacher and lifelong friend, older and mellower but as beguiling and free-spirited as ever. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Inevitably poignant but also often amusing and always deeply touching. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
This might have come off as both self-indulgent and preachy if McElwee weren't so persuasively earnest. "Bright Leaves" becomes both a mystery and memoir in progress and though the filmmaker does not find the truth he is looking for, it was clearly a quest worth undertaking. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
In a season of hyperven tilating political docu mentaries - witness Michael Moore and his imitators - Ross McElwee shows just how far subtlety can go with his latest charming effort, Bright Leaves. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Where most documentaries offer us facts to hold on to, his (McElwee's) are obsessed with the mystery of things we don't know and never will. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Another of his (McElwee) beguiling "personal chronicle" movies. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Not a documentary about anything in particular. That is its charm. It's a meandering visit by a curious man with a quiet sense of humor, who pokes here and there in his family history, and the history of tobacco. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
It's a gently provocative film diary about tobacco and its mixed legacy. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Continuing the autobiographical torrent begun nearly 30 years ago, Bright Leaves is an utterly mundane miracle, a sampling of gentle insight and poetic retrospection quietly at odds with the exploitative culture around it. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Under his (McElwee's) watch, the possibilities of a documentary seem to expand by the minute, incorporating not only journalistic truths, but also personal insights and philosophy, unique regional textures, and unexposed pockets of humanity. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
One reason Bright Leaves is McElwee's best film since "Sherman's March" is the richness of his reflections on this multifaceted material. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Results in a weightless film. Worse still, McElwee's languid tone makes his journey lack conviction. Read full review
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