I'm Still Here
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: January 17, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 26, 2025
The realisation that her husband is gone for good is a gradual process that plays out, largely without words, on Torres’s face, in a performance of extraordinary intelligence and emotional complexity. Read full review
100
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 6, 2025
This mesmerizing film is a tribute to an astonishing woman and a timely reminder of a dark period in a country’s history. And, through its vivid use of photographs (particularly the real-life ones shown at the end), it’s a reminder that through film, our stories live on. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Anne T. DonahueFeb 5, 2025
I’m Still Here is a timely, exquisite masterpiece. Read full review
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 30, 2025
In I’m Still Here, Walter Salles’ first feature film in a dozen years, the Brazilian director manages an impressive feat of teleporting, placing the viewer inside the cheerful chaos of a large Brazilian family. Read full review
100
Washington PostTy BurrJan 23, 2025
Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here is an epic within an epic: a teeming family drama contained within the melodrama of a country going insane. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJan 22, 2025
Based on a true story, this is a tribute to the strength of a matriarch who doesn’t have time to grieve or feel sorry for herself. She has children to love and protect. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarJan 19, 2025
I’m Still Here brilliantly distills an agonizing chapter of a nation’s recent past into a sophisticated portrait of communal endurance. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 17, 2025
I’m Still Here is a movie about remembrance – of a family and a nation. The necessity to acknowledge injustice is its timeless clarion call. Read full review
100
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonJan 16, 2025
I’m Still Here does not present as a simple polemic about a historical and political situation, and that’s the secret to its global appeal. It’s also a moving portrait of how politics disrupts and reshapes the domestic sphere, and how solidarity, community and love are the only viable path toward living in tragedy. And it warns us to mistrust anyone who tries to erase or rewrite the past. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsJan 16, 2025
It’s difficult to fully contextualize how incredible Torres is here; she matches the film’s silent grief by keenly deploying her character’s internal angst into her slender frame. Through her formidable presence, the deliberate “I’m Still Here,” a film that locates further meaning in the face of Brazil’s present Far-Right wave, remains in the heart long after the picture fades. Read full review
100
VarietyJessica KiangSep 4, 2024
Salles’ deeply invested filmmaking is remarkable in its grace and naturalism. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubManuel BetancourtJan 14, 2025
Heartrending yet never maudlin, I’m Still Here is a humanist drama that, in shining a light on insidious injustice, becomes a balm to warn and warm its audiences in equal measure. Read full review
90
Little White LiesRafaela Sales RossFeb 20, 2025
I’m Still Here triumphs in pairing Salles’s intrinsic understanding of the emotional potential of realism with two brilliant performers in Mello and Torres. Read full review
90
ColliderEmma KielyOct 15, 2024
The chemistry between all of the Paira family members forms the beating heart of the film, devastating the audience by reminding them how happy they used to be, but promising them that nothing can shatter their sense of spirit, because they are together. Read full review
90
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 4, 2024
Salles never over-labours the film’s emotional beats, relying instead on Torres’ magnificent, intricately layered performance to drive the picture. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 4, 2024
I’m Still Here is a gripping, profoundly touching film with a deep well of pathos. It’s one of Salles’ best. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 30, 2025
Director Walter Salles returns to the political filmmaking he employed in the 2004 Che Guevara film, “The Motorcycle Diaries.” Like that film, this one follows a protagonist who becomes an activist after being jarred by political events. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 27, 2025
Torres gives a performance that gains strength even as Eunice increasingly trembles; this is no stoic, generic portrait of resilience, but one that’s always counting the cost. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 27, 2025
Torres is one of those screen veterans with a surgically precise relationship to the camera, never pushing, always searching for emotions expressed even as they’re being hidden, or held in check, because someone’s watching. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 17, 2025
Fact-based family dramas don’t come more intense or indelible than Walter Salles’s emotional powerhouse starring Golden Globe best actress winner Fernanda Torres as a Brazilian wife and mother who fights a military dictatorship to save her flesh and blood Read full review
88
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 15, 2025
A peerless example of using exacting form to not simply inform and enhance content, but to create a profound link between movie and moviegoer. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineJason GorberFeb 10, 2025
Walter Salles’ latest, and most accomplished film, I’m Still Here, allows international audiences into this world of quiet resilience and powerful response to the whims of a dictatorial regime. Read full review
83
The Film VerdictDeborah YoungSep 5, 2024
The film is a mirror and a warning. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 28, 2025
Some films based on dramatic true events offer us a snapshot of a life: I’m Still Here shows us a life of snapshots. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 28, 2025
Torres, in her masterfully controlled performance, offers up all we could possibly require. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 18, 2025
Energy does not buzz around this film, but it swells with decency, humanity and quiet bravery. Read full review
80
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 24, 2025
That unsettling feeling is communicated by Torres’s devastating, genuine performance. Read full review
80
TheWrapChase HutchinsonJan 21, 2025
As Salles shows us, such a seismic loss spans many generations just as it does entire histories that are still being written. We must then always remember the people, their individual stories, and what it was that they endured so that others may never have to do so again. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 17, 2025
What’s remarkable is how [Torres] never overplays anything, or goes for easy histrionics and rending of garments even when the movie itself becomes heavy-handed in the back half. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenSep 10, 2024
I’m Still Here takes you right into the machinery of a repressive regime, showing just enough of its dank jail cells and casual cruelties without overwhelming its deeper story of loss. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 30, 2025
Through the meat of the movie, I’m Still Here is unassailable: a gripping story, sensitively performed, with outstanding production and costume design effectively reproducing the era. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 10, 2025
Torres is so subtle at portraying a mother unable to show panic or righteous rage that when Eunice finally does let her guard down it’s almost shocking. It’s a great performance. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJan 16, 2025
It is deeply personal and imbued with the kind of tenderness that is extremely difficult to see or appreciate in the moment. Read full review
75
IndieWireLeila LatifSep 2, 2024
The idea of them getting justice never feels on the table, but the film instead is a path out of the madness of a system where to simply have what happened to their father admitted would fill some of the void he has left behind. Read full review
70
The New YorkerJustin ChangJan 30, 2025
It was shrewd of the screenwriters, Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, to stick so closely to Eunice’s perspective, trusting the audience to identify with her uncertainty, her vulnerability, and her instinctive urge to protect her children. But I’m Still Here has its own share of tactical evasions, and its dramatic caginess winds up blunting its own emotional force. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 25, 2025
I’m Still Here is an evocative, nuanced portrait of family and the lasting imprint of politics. Read full review
60
EmpireGavia Baker-WhitelawFeb 19, 2025
This drama is a little too sedate to make its mark, but director Walter Salles delivers a sensitive portrait of Eunice Paiva's family life during a period of traumatic upheaval. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 19, 2025
The subtlety and dignity of Fernanda Torres’s Oscar-nominated performance in Walter Salles’s new film have been rightly praised. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesJan 16, 2025
Much of it has a potent force, thanks in large part to the performance of Ms. Torres. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 2, 2024
Salles’s imperfect, hobbled film tells us that hope springs eternal and that joy is a given and that most happy families will find a way to survive. Read full review
58
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferSep 2, 2024
Given the unhurried pacing and general underplaying of the situation’s gravity, the film feels like visiting a museum exhibit rather than living through a flashpoint of history. Here, the past’s horrors are but pictures nestled safely behind glass. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineCole KronmanOct 9, 2024
The film has trouble excavating any coarse humanism from this decidedly human story, opting instead to paint the family at its center in broad, uninspired strokes. Read full review
50
The Film StageSavina PetkovaSep 2, 2024
On this occasion Salles has somehow failed to find the right cinematic framework for this biopic storytelling. The film feels uncalibrated, but not in the free-flowing, depth-exploring, liberated kind of way. Read full review
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