Distant
New Yorker Films | Release Date: March 12, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
What is most winning about Distant is that it can peer past the grief and find a scrap of comedy. [15 March 2004, p. 154]
90
VarietyDavid Stratton
An arthouse film par excellence, a consummately made study of loneliness and frustration. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Ceylan, who also served as cinematographer, frames the affecting, unstudied performances in gorgeously chosen shots and nonevents that sometimes teeter on the edge of comedy before knocking us breathless with their emotional power. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Thoughtfully orchestrated and filled with visual wit. Read full review
70
The New York TimesElvis Mitchell
Such an accurate depiction of cramped spirits, small-mindedness and men unable to make changes in their lives takes its toll. Distant feels as if it's going nowhere in no particular hurry, and finally leaves us distant from its characters. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Mood, atmosphere, and character are more important than story twists in this unassuming, acutely observant drama. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
If "Starsky & Hutch" is your idea of art, keep your distance from Distant, the droll new movie from maverick Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. If, on the other hand, you're searching for something that will remain with you long after leaving the theater, run, don't walk, to Distant. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
There's also very little dialogue, but what there is is often very funny, and Ceylan is a master of the dead-pan visual gags that reveal volumes about his character. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Long stretches go by without dialogue or discernible action. But there are significant rewards for those willing to accept the movie's deliberate pace. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The film might be called a moral travelogue. Instead of showing us mosques and tourist spots in beguiling old Istanbul, it follows a couple of ordinary Turkish men in drab surroundings and affirms that they breathe the same doubt-laden air as much of the rest of the world. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A Chekhovian tale of major artistic power. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The narrative, capped by a brief bad dream and the capture of a mouse, isn't always legible, but it feeds into a monumental, luminous visual style like no other. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A movie like this touches everyday life in a way that we can recognize as if Turkey were Peoria. I can imagine a similar film being made in America, although Americans might talk more. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
A minimalist drama that takes its mood from Turkey's wintry terrain and the uneasy relationship between two bullheaded cousins. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The compositions are masterful, especially the snow-covered scenes in Istanbul and, most memorably, the spectacle of an overturned ship in the wintry harbor. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Straightforward, droll, brutally honest and arresting. Read full review
90
L.A. Weekly
The film's extraordinary shifts from windswept sorrow (Mahmut watching from a distance as his ex-wife departs Istanbul for a new life in Canada) to deadpan comedy (the cousins' carefully engineered capture of a household rodent) are uniquely, triumphantly their maker's own. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A beautifully made, unapologetically artistic piece of work. Read full review
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