Minari
A24 | Release Date: December 11, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
48
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutPhil de SemlyenApr 1, 2021
It’s at once intimate and expansive – a film with a big heart and not a bad word to say about anyone. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 1, 2021
This is a wonderfully absorbing and moving family drama with a buttery, sunlit streak of sentimentality. Read full review
100
EmpireTerri WhiteMar 30, 2021
A profound, detail-perfect and soulful slice of American family life, with some of the year’s most sincere performances to date. Read full review
100
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 25, 2021
As it unspools, Minari becomes a study in sober compassion. Chung has worked through the conflicts of his upbringing—his father’s stubbornness, the family’s rural isolation—and arrived at the grace of understanding, and all the forgiveness, regret, and affection that comes with that. Read full review
100
Original-CinKaren GordonFeb 25, 2021
Chung’s well-crafted film is amply aided by a uniformly superb, note-perfect cast, who bring colour, nuance and heart to the film. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 25, 2021
It is not just about the American dream; it is a search for America’s soul. Read full review
100
BBCNicholas BarberFeb 17, 2021
Sensitively written and acted, beautifully shot, and with a charming, sparingly used score, Minari is so engaging that it's easy to forget how radical it is. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerFeb 12, 2021
That's the nuanced naturalism that makes Minari so captivating, so intimate: It doesn't tell a complicated story, instead letting the roots and branches of its family drama grow and become entwined with the audience's own stories. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 11, 2021
The most efficient review of Minari would be something along the lines of “It’s wonderful. See it. You’ll love it.” But you need to know more than that about Lee Isaac Chung’s partly autobiographical drama. Read full review
100
The Associated PressLindsey BahrFeb 11, 2021
Minari could not be more personal. Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung based the film on his own childhood in the 1980s, when his Korean American parents moved to Arkansas to start a farm. And it’s the specificity of this delicate tale that makes it so universal and so great. Read full review
100
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 10, 2021
Minari is as moving as it is entertaining, and it is a lot of both. Read full review
100
ConsequenceJosh SpiegelFeb 9, 2021
Lee Isaac Chung’s smooth ability to craft relatable drama makes him a director to pay attention to. It’s not just that Minari is captivating in the moment. Like the best films, it has images and scenes that will stay with you long after the film is over. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 9, 2021
Minari is as American as apple pie and kimchi, which is to say it’s what America is all about. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippDec 10, 2020
For all the struggle that takes place in this movie, it is its quiet grace that you most remember. Minari shares its secrets with a whisper, and as it unfolds, you find yourself leaning into it, enraptured. Read full review
100
TheWrapCarlos AguilarJan 28, 2020
Minari beams with subtle wonder. Read full review
100
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 28, 2020
Gentle as the stream that flows through the Yi’s property, and yet powerful enough to reverberate for generations to come, Chung’s loving — and immensely lovable — immigrant drama interrogates the American Dream with the hard-edged hope of a family that needs to believe in something before they lose all faith in each other. Read full review
95
ABC NewsPeter TraversFeb 12, 2021
Everybody’s talking about this unassuming, but also unmissable and unforgettable slice of Korean-American life and for good reason: Lee Isaac Chung’s heartfelt tale of his own childhood is the best movie you’ll find anywhere about what it means to be a family. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 28, 2020
There is barely a manufactured minute in the film. Everything fits together organically and in a narrative film that is much harder to pull off than it sounds. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyDavid CanfieldJan 28, 2020
Minari works quietly and methodically, embracing its lush rural setting with striking glimpses of its characters, alone against vast and empty landscapes. Chung’s directing feels drawn from memory, the scattered and sparkling quality of recollections, carefully assembled. It’s perhaps why every second rings so true. Read full review
90
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 25, 2021
Minari is a tale that will feel familiar to many, but Chung grounds it in brilliant specificity. Read full review
90
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Aparita BhandariFeb 24, 2021
The film forms a kind of origin story, giving voice to the often silent experiences of a particular immigrant community in the 80s. Lachlan Milne’s cinematography veers from prosaic to evocative to breathtaking, depending on the scene. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottFeb 12, 2021
Minari is modest, specific and thrifty, like the lives it surveys. There’s nothing small about it, though, because it operates at the true scale of life. Read full review
90
Screen RantRachel LaBonteFeb 9, 2021
By not giving into what might be expected from a typical immigrant story, Chung has given the material space to breathe on its own, creating a space that can be appreciated by all kinds of people. The cast shines, the story hits home, and Minari stands as a winner. Read full review
90
SlateKaren HanDec 19, 2020
Thoughtfully directed, vividly written, and beautifully acted, it’s a hopeful film, universally appealing despite—or perhaps because of—just how very Korean American it is. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 29, 2020
Chung transforms the specificity of his upbringing into something warm, tender and universal. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 25, 2021
Over its quiet two hours, beautifully punctuated by long shots of sunlit green fields and fireflies flitting at twilight, Minari lets us become part of the Yi family. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenFeb 24, 2021
A tender, fictionalized memoir anchored by two stellar performances. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 16, 2021
Writer-director Chung and the production team have delivered a sepia-toned memory piece that never sugarcoats the culture clashes in and out of the Yi household and yet remains hopeful in tone throughout, reminding us of the power of family and of the Great American Dream. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneNina MetzFeb 11, 2021
Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung is telling his own story here. The rough outlines and even some of the specific details are autobiographical and filtered through his memories of childhood. But he’s also considering these themes from his perspective now as an adult with a child of his own . . . and he straddles the two sides of this line so well, with wit and nuance, but also with such cutting precision. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 10, 2021
In creating the film, Chung pulled from his own childhood growing up in Arkansas, and Minari works because it feels so personal as you root for a fragmented family weathering resentment and heartbreak in an uplifting and very universal tale. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzDec 14, 2020
It’s impossible not to appreciate the deep understanding of human behavior, as well as the way that ordinary objects and situations acquire symbolic meaning when we think about them in relation to the characters. This is a lovely, unique film. Read full review
83
The Film StageJordan RaupFeb 1, 2020
One of the most subtly striking decisions in Minari is to not focus on the major moments in their path towards the American Dream, but rather memorable interactions within this tight-knit family, however minor they may be. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeApr 5, 2021
What makes this more than just another formulaic feelgood film is the grit with which Chung evokes the hardscrabble lives of his characters, balancing the dreamier elements of the drama with a naturalism that keeps it rooted in reality. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyApr 2, 2021
It adds up to a rare film about assimilation that can be equally cherished by both poles of the American political landscape. And everybody in between. Read full review
80
CineVueMatthew AndersonMar 2, 2021
Resolute, inquisitive and remarkably at ease on camera for a lad of such tender years, Alan S Kim is a star in the making. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekFeb 26, 2021
Minari is a gentle, lovely picture, one that acknowledges there really is no “immigrant experience,” beyond the pure human experience of finding yourself adjusting to a new environment. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 25, 2021
The cast’s performances are all so beautifully observed that you may end up wishing the film had given their characters a few more moments of quiet. Read full review
80
CNNBrian LowryFeb 11, 2021
Minari is a deeply personal film, and quality that's evident in writer-director Lee Isaac Chung's reminiscence about his childhood. Focusing on a Korean immigrant family, the universal themes come through loud, clear and ultimately with considerable power, even if the movie's languid pace works against it. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJan 7, 2021
Chung is a patient filmmaker who works in small sequences that accrue imperceptibly into something grander. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJan 5, 2021
More than just a retrospective of himself (and his relationship with his sprightly grandmother), Minari feels like Chung gazing into the past to recognize and empathize with the kind of hardships and sacrifices his immigrant parents had to endure. In the process, he creates a riveting drama about hope, family, and the difficulties of change. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 29, 2020
Chung’s nuanced portrait of a family figuring out their place in the world is both small and somehow rather grand. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 28, 2020
The charming low-key humor and the actors are all winning without being coy or cutesy. Minari is a modest pic but very human and accessible, and quite distinctively so in comparison to the vast majority of high-concept and/or violent movies rolling out today. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanJan 28, 2020
Minari is never downbeat, despite the challenges the characters face. Chung’s love for his characters—and the Arkansas farmland where he grew up—always shines through. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 10, 2021
It’s a good movie, executed with affectionate humor, wistful honesty and tender care. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 10, 2021
The writer/director tries hard to make Minari what it is – a collage of remembrances seen through the eyes of a child then filtered through the perceptions of the fortysomething man he became. It’s a rewarding but not overpowering experience. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 24, 2021
Chung (“Lucky Life”), filming a tale both familiar and alien and a story not far removed from his own childhood, has made a breakout film of brittle tenderness, heart and hope — one that we hope makes him a filmmaker to watch from here on out. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubBeatrice LoayzaDec 8, 2020
Minari is that rare slice-of-life drama that contains multitudes without needing to look beyond the borders of its highly specific story. Read full review
63
Slant MagazinePat BrownDec 6, 2020
The film’s orderliness of plot somewhat undermines the sense that the family at its center is steeped in a truly messy situation. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyFeb 10, 2021
The narrow and merely illustrative drama is matched, unfortunately, by an impersonal cinematography that fails to suggest texture or intimacy. Read full review
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