Joyland
Oscilloscope | Release Date: April 7, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleHannah BaeMay 17, 2023
It’s revolutionary due to Sadiq’s care and close attention to detail with all of his characters. It’s a love letter to a place and people he knows intimately, and I hope to see much more of his work soon. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneApr 4, 2023
Joyland is full of extraordinary situations that prevent it from being defined by its topicality or tantamount to a badge of honor. Read full review
100
The Irish TimesTara BradyFeb 24, 2023
Mostly, Joyland is a film of huge heart and empathy. Mirroring the hapless hero’s journey, it’s an unexpected romance. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 21, 2023
A visually arresting, politically forceful melodrama from Pakistan. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 3, 2023
Sadiq is not lecturing us or trading in types; he is taking us by sensory surprise, and the tale that he tells is funny, forward, and sometimes woundingly sad. Read full review
88
Washington PostMark JenkinsMay 22, 2023
With its multiple intersecting narratives, writer-director Saim Sadiq’s debut feature takes an almost novelistic approach to its central theme: the repression of human individuality by a regimented traditional society. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 23, 2023
It’s a subtle and subtly-acted story told at a slow simmer, adding twists even as it takes an inevitable turn towards tragic. Many a transgender tale is cast in operatically-tragic terms. But here, anything less would feel like a cheat. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonApr 19, 2023
Joyland is impressive, with an emotional world that feels true, and characters who feel complex and alive. Read full review
83
IndieWireSiddhant AdlakhaNov 15, 2022
The frame moves slowly, if at all, but it always brims with physical and emotional energy; in “Joyland,” there’s always something in the ether, whether embodied by dazzling displays of light as characters move across stages and club floors, or by breathtaking silences as they begin to figure each other out, and figure out themselves. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 25, 2023
Richly detailed and superbly acted across the board, the film cast a scathing eye over the rigid social constraints that ensnare anyone who fails to conform. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 22, 2023
Joyland is such a delicate, intelligent and emotionally rich film. What a debut from Sadiq. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentFeb 21, 2023
A storming debut from writer-director Saim Sadiq: emotional, tender, and quietly radical. With any luck, it will herald a new era for Pakistani cinema. Read full review
80
Time OutKaleem AftabJan 23, 2023
Joyland’s quiet power comes not through melodrama, which Sadiq scrupulously avoids, but its deep affection for its characters. It’s a modern tale of changing gender roles and the patriarchal crisis that could just as easily have taken place in New York. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterNov 15, 2022
Sadiq’s screenplay navigates a complex web of secrets and lies, pressures and prejudices to create a soulful human drama intent on challenging narrow minds. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeNov 15, 2022
Tartly funny and plungingly sad in equal measure, this is nuanced, humane queer filmmaking, more concerned with the textures and particulars of its own intimate story than with grander social statements — even if, as a tale of transgender desire in a Muslim country, its very premise makes it a boundary-breaker. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeNov 15, 2022
As Joyland heads toward its end, the film grows increasingly moving. Secrets and their attendant lies collapse under pressure. The weight of what’s left unsaid strangles interactions. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 3, 2023
Watery-eyed and drowning in contrition, Junejo finds a touching, tragic inner life to Haider's passivity: But in Urdu and Punjabi observational tragedy Joyland first-time director Saim Sadiq isn't interested in simply telling a story of sexual and social liberation. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyApr 7, 2023
While it keeps a sharp, neo-realist-influenced eye on the everyday lives of its characters, Joyland often gets so intimate as to discomfit the viewer to the point of exasperation. But the movie itself never judges. Read full review
70
Little White LiesXuanlin ThamMay 2, 2023
A beautifully intimate yet open-ended interrogation of the spaces its characters are forced to navigate, Sadiq’s intricate debut is a haunting elegy that mourns the deadly suffocation of desire, elegantly tracing how the liberation of men, women, cis, and trans people is always entangled. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAmy NicholsonApr 6, 2023
Outrage works in the movie’s favor; this polite weepie needs the added spice. While about an unconventional affair, the movie is more interested in suppression and restraint. Read full review
70
SlashfilmRyan LestonNov 15, 2022
Joyland is a wonderful film about longing and desire with a melancholy undertone that you just don't expect. Read full review
58
The Film StageEthan VestbyNov 15, 2022
Another example of a tasteful but passionless festival film, Saim Sadiq’s feature debut Joyland errs on the side of arch family drama when its most interesting aspects remain almost in the periphery, promising a much better film. Read full review
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