I Was a Simple Man
Strand Releasing | Release Date: November 19, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 8, 2021
Yogi unfolds the characters’ intimate stories and the region’s history in sharply textured details and rapturous images; he blends social practicalities and metaphysical mysteries with a serene, straightforward astonishment. Read full review
90
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiDec 8, 2021
I Was a Simple Man is a slow-burning walk toward the light, a paean for life, and the land and people that shaped it. It's the kind of love letter that only a lifelong resident of Hawaii like Yogi could make, to a resilient land whose scars will take long to heal. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comRoxana HadadiNov 22, 2021
A 100-minute spell of beauty and melancholy, intimate and grand in equal measure, a film that derives its power from the universality of its final destination and the relatability of the pain, love, and regret that pave the guiding road. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 9, 2021
Layering the spectral hush of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” over the elegiac domesticity of a late Ozu film like “An Autumn Afternoon,” the Honolulu-born filmmaker’s singularly Hawaiian second feature is haunted and haunting in equal measure — a reckoning pitched at the volume of a whisper. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 9, 2021
The edges are perhaps rougher and the narrative more structured, but the film carries echoes of the work of Asian contemplative cinema maestros Tsai Ming-liang and Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, both of whom Yogi cites as influences. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeDec 9, 2021
All Yogi’s actors work in subtle, effective deference to his natural command of atmosphere and place: This is a film where Hawaiian rainfall has as prominent and evocative a voice as any human presence, and where the growth of a tree marks time as clearly as the deepening crevices in a character’s face. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenDec 2, 2021
Taking a cue from its taciturn protagonist, I Was a Simple Man prefers to let its soulful poetic imagery do the bulk of the talking. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineWes GreeneNov 16, 2021
The film’s quietly uncanny narrative wondrously depicts not only a dying man’s reflection on his life, but also the very nature of Hawaii itself. Read full review
70
Film ThreatBradley GibsonDec 8, 2021
Yogi brings us close to Masao’s personal tragedy while at the same time pulling back to see life and death at a cosmic level. The movie delves into the cycle of life and death enough so that that audience members can understand and accept the beauty of the process. Read full review
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