Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Cinema Guild | Release Date: September 14, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 24, 2019
Hale County, in the best sense, is the kind of film that asks more questions than it provides answers for. Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJan 22, 2019
The film works as a collage of everyday moments that dovetail seamlessly between the sublime and the banal. Indeed in its most mesmerising scenes, the alchemy of duration and focus elevates these moments to something more profound. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 17, 2019
There is something visionary in this film. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Melissa VincentJan 17, 2019
In an era where films such as "Moonlight" and "If Beale Street Could Talk" have received accolades for their capacity to reimagine expressions of black life on film, Ross contributes to this new canon by staring down the assumption of what type of black lived experiences mass audiences are capable of acknowledging. Read full review
100
The New York TimesGlenn KennySep 13, 2018
The filmmaker’s poetic logic is inextricable from his consciousness of race and community, and of his function and potential as an artist grappling with his own circumstances and those of the people he’s depicting. “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” is not a long film, but it contains whole worlds. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriAug 29, 2018
By sticking to his impressionistic perspective, by fracturing his narrative, Ross achieves something genuinely poetic — a film whose very lightness is the key to its depth. Read full review
100
The PlaylistAndrew CrumpAug 29, 2018
Like life itself, Hale County This Morning, This Evening doesn’t lend itself to immediate comprehension. It’s to Ross’ credit that his work remains so thoroughly accessible and engrossing regardless. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 20, 2018
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, is a poetic documentary with a gift for making enrapturing imagery out of what sound like ordinary, everyday events. Read full review
90
Film ThreatTheo SchearAug 29, 2018
It’s a film too real to be written. It was lived and continues to be lived in Alabama every day. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 5, 2018
A very particular sort of camera is at work in Hale County This Morning, This Evening. It peers from unconventional angles, lingers on images longer than they at first seem to deserve, and generally offers a perspective that is at once unremarkable, given the everyday subject matter, and revealing. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonSep 14, 2018
At times, Hale County This Morning, This Evening evokes the work of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose films “Tropical Malady” and “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” tell the stories of people and places primarily through their visuals. Read full review
83
The Film StageDaniel SchindelAug 29, 2018
Structurally, Hale County This Morning, This Evening does not do much to distinguish itself from other contemporary vérité documentaries which focus on quotidian details within a certain milieu. But even so, it still finds value in the unique incidents it captures. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterAug 29, 2018
The film can be difficult to get a handle on, but eventually encourages you to surrender to its poetic moods and distinctive rhythms. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisNov 18, 2018
Ross doesn’t gloss over the challenges facing the rural black county, but he finds a strong spirit there, even as the storm clouds hover. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayAug 29, 2018
Hale County dwells on the beauty of the everyday as it recognizes the fragility of individual lives. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichAug 29, 2018
At its strongest, the film feels like kin to Kirsten Johnson’s great Cameraperson (2016), a free-associative nonfiction memoir comprised mostly of B-roll and personal footage. Though the subject here isn’t Ross himself (despite a few offscreen aural appearances) but an entire community that, in both micro- and macrocosmic senses, has remained historically unacknowledged and unseen. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 12, 2018
If Ross had embraced anything like a narrative line, would it have taken away from the elemental imagery of his brief, unconventional film? One can’t really tackle life and what it means on both a personal and social level without prying into the people who live it. Ross keeps his distance—and in doing so, keeps Hale County’s potential at an arm’s length. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 28, 2018
The movie has won year-end attention (it made this year’s Oscar documentary short list), and once you let yourself glide onto its wavelength, it’s got a cosmically becalmed addictive quality. Read full review
40
Film Journal InternationalMaria GarciaSep 13, 2018
Ross’ debut is scattershot, and lacking in the consistent purpose that articulates a filmmaker’s intent. Read full review
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