Nostalgia
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: February 16, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
10
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 14, 2018
Keener, as always, is excellent, a shrewd actor adept at revealing what her characters might not realize they’re revealing. Eventually, she must plumb the depths of grief, and the effect is something like watching a member of your actual family collapse and then pull herself together and keep pressing on. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyFeb 15, 2018
Nostalgia is not a perfect film but it is moving and sensitive. You leave with your head in the clouds and a new view of your precious stuff. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 17, 2018
Pellington and Perry can be accused of over-enunciating their ideas, but any film flooded with this level of emotion is worthy of our respect — and our tears. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 9, 2018
It demands attention. It requires a lot of life experience to connect to its themes and subject matter. It’s a movie for the old, and those dealing with the philosophical, taking-stock questions of life. If that describes you, sad as it sometimes feels, Nostalgia can be an exercise well worth doing. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chandler LevackMar 1, 2018
Only a few of the characters are well-developed enough to sustain the movie's interest, while the rest speak in obscure, poetic dialogue that repeats the central thesis ad nauseam. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedFeb 27, 2018
A well-meaning, expertly acted film, it unfortunately drowns in its own sorrow. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoFeb 21, 2018
The film can be naggingly vague and patchily written where precision seems called for, but the familiar procession keenly digging into the wistful material does hold interest. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 16, 2018
It’s beguiling that a film with an almost religious aversion to subtext could be so unsure of its own subject, but Pellington knows from experience that it’s hard to put a finger on impermanence. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 14, 2018
Hamm gets to dig deeper than he has before on the big screen, tweaking some Draperian notes of aloofness into a credible emotional dimension, even when Nostalgia abandons its unsensational, slice-of-life-in-boxes approach for something closer to traditional tragedy. Read full review
58
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 13, 2018
Ultimately, the whole is not as great as the sum of some very effective scenes. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 22, 2018
The performances are heavy-handed, except for that of Jon Hamm, who benefits not only from playing something of a wise guy (a sports memorabilia salesman), but also from his own unsentimental instincts. Read full review
50
VarietyDennis HarveyJan 13, 2018
Though lent a degree of executional grace by helmer Mark Pellington, Nostalgia nonetheless emerges an inorganic experiment that might’ve seemed more at home developed for the stage or as a novella. Read full review
45
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpFeb 23, 2018
Anonymously directed by Mark Pellington, puzzlingly scripted by Alex Ross Perry and handsomely acted by its ensemble—though none of its participants are ever given enough space to fully feel out their characters—Nostalgia is a poor man’s version of other great movies built upon complexly interwoven narratives. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiFeb 28, 2018
The stellar cast is uniformly great, but perhaps that speaks more toward the subject matter of grief and moving on, giving everyone a showcase to sink their teeth into acting. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 15, 2018
The actors can't turn the strained stabs at poetry into the affecting meditation that was clearly intended. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisFeb 15, 2018
A soggy string of Hallmark moments designed to interrogate the value of the objects we cherish, the movie is front-loaded with major stars and squelching with sentiment. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberJan 12, 2018
No doubt everyone can relate to the central idea of wondering about the purpose of the mementos we leave behind or those we discover after a death in the family. But a promising theme does not necessarily make for a satisfying movie. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 16, 2018
A strong cast giving their all — including Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn, Bruce Dern, Catherine Keener and Amber Tamblyn — can’t do much with such heavy-handed, self-serious material. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenFeb 11, 2018
Mark Pellington's Nostalgia is less a living, breathing film than a presentation of sentiments revolving around a pat question: Are the objects of our lives merely detritus, or are they vital to our identities? Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 22, 2018
A slow, talky and only faintly moving meditation on mortality and memory. Read full review
25
The PlaylistEli FineFeb 28, 2018
The primary characteristic of Nostalgia is that it’s deathly boring, and difficult to sit through in its entirety. Read full review
23
TheWrapRay GreeneJan 12, 2018
Hamm, an extraordinarily subtle actor whose quiet craft often gets overlooked, is perfectly cast for the tone Pellington wants to strike, and he’s able to emote convincingly in the narrow elegiac range in which Nostalgia tries to operate. Read full review
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