Dheepan
Sundance Selects | Release Date: May 6, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 12, 2016
Jacques Audiard’s superb drama, which won the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, rises to the challenge with the power of art and not a scintilla of sentimentality. Read full review
91
The Film StageZhuo-Ning SuMay 5, 2016
Clear-eyed, tightly wound, and cinematically and psychologically immersive, it’s a furious ride of a movie that actually has something to say. Read full review
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonMay 23, 2015
This really is Audiard operating at the top of his game, mostly dropping the contrivances of "Rust & Bone" for incisive character studies and a deeply humane, almost warm, worldview. Read full review
90
TheWrapRobert AbeleMay 6, 2016
Though Dheepan is another triumph for Audiard, it could have just as easily not worked had its leads not been so affecting Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 5, 2016
[Mr. Audiard] makes popcorn movies disguised as art films, and vice versa. Dheepan is a bit like a Liam Neeson revenge-dad action thriller directed by the Dardenne brothers. I mean that in the best possible way. Read full review
90
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 23, 2015
Proceeds without flashy tricks or showy technique, offering the pleasures of captivating storytelling with an irresistible human pulse. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 9, 2016
There’s no doubt that Audiard has invested a story of grief, dispossession and desire with immediate, almost tactile, urgency. Like the best fiction, it takes the most incomprehensible stories of our time and makes them hauntingly, inescapably clear. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 27, 2016
The final third of Audiard's drama falls into crime-drama mode. It is tense and violent. But even if it feels true, given Dheepan's history with the Tamil Tigers, it also feels a little beside the point. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 6, 2016
For most of the movie, Dheepan, for all its flaws, is hard-hitting in ways that count. It has the intimacy of a personal drama but the amplitude of a much larger immigrant odyssey. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 5, 2016
It's a heady brew, awkwardly told, but smartly provocative. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 5, 2016
As an empathetic snapshot of the current immigrant experience in France, the film is compelling right through, but it’s the central relationship that really digs its way into your soul. Read full review
80
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMay 4, 2016
Ultimately, Dheepan is the story of three people struggling to maintain their humanity, even as they lose their identities. Read full review
80
EmpireLiz BeardsworthApr 4, 2016
Once again Audiard articulates big themes within a mosaic of everyday struggles. A painful yet rewarding tale of social strife and uplifting resilience. Read full review
80
The GuardianAndrew PulverMay 23, 2015
This may not be the director’s most immediately electrifying film, but in its understated way, it’s an immensely powerful work. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 23, 2015
It shows Audiard once again drawn to resilient people in punishing situations, and its arc from the opening images of death to its final notes of hope and wholeness is quite moving. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 22, 2016
Until things devolve into a stormy conclusion, Dheepan is a sharply observed drama about identity and separation, strangeness and commonalities, and making do while hoping for something better. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 9, 2016
The quiet strength of Dheepan is how it shows these lives — the people in our midst we never see — rolling on forever, adapting, struggling, and finding their way. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdoñaJun 2, 2016
Deceptively unadorned. In its simplicity, it digs for complex feelings and ideas — and is particularly timely, considering current political winds and Paris’ announcement of its first refugee camp. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyMay 6, 2016
See it for the performances. There you will find the whole story. Read full review
75
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMay 5, 2016
The remarkable performances from the central trio are what carries the film. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 4, 2016
This is a strong movie about a man in need of a new start, made by someone who could benefit from one of his own. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJun 2, 2016
The stunning character work is accented with moments of pure cinematic poetry. Audiard uses the camera like a paintbrush, composing lyrical interludes and disorienting transitions with the power to leave you breathless. It’s all so quietly brilliant — until it isn’t. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasMay 23, 2015
What keeps Dheepan engaging throughout is the tremendous charisma of the performers. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 12, 2016
For a while, it’s quietly meditative and riveting – worthy of the Palme d’Or it captured last spring in Cannes. But in the film’s final 10 minutes, Audiard lets his bombastic sensibilities loose, creating an over-the-top revenge tale that’s bewildering. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoMay 3, 2016
Jacques Audiard's film struggles to overcome the burden of its over-simplified, moralizing setup. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 12, 2016
The nagging lack of specificity with which the film concludes can’t help but call its entire dramatic construction into question. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2015
A mix of Loachian social realism and Death Wish-style violent fantasy. Read full review
50
ConsequenceCollin BrennanMay 19, 2016
It’s a shame, given all of the film’s strengths, that Dheepan takes such a precipitous nosedive in its final act. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 4, 2016
Jacques Audiard’s misbegotten Palme D’Or winner Dheepan aspires to be a "Taxi Driver" for today’s Europe, but ends up as a crude cross between "Death Wish" and Ken Loach. Read full review
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