Return to Dust
Film Movement | Release Date: July 21, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 21, 2023
The stoical, quiet, affecting beast of burden in Li Ruijun’s much-admired drama is emblematic of the film’s larger appeal. Read full review
95
Film ThreatSumner ForbesAug 3, 2023
The heart of Return to Dust is centered on the married couple’s efforts to construct a new home by hand. It’s grueling work, but through Li’s stunning visuals and mastery of pacing, we become engrossed by the details not only of the labor but by their burgeoning love. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangJul 21, 2023
A later-life love story of the gentlest kind, Li Ruijun’s Return to Dust is an absorbing, beautifully framed drama that makes a virtue — possibly too much a virtue — of simplicity. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJohn BerraJul 21, 2023
It packs a quiet emotional punch. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 21, 2023
This is an elegiac story, a humanistic metaphor for a vanishing world seen through the prism of a vulnerable couple cruelly written off by their families as worthless encumbrances. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhuong LeJul 21, 2023
With a cast largely made up of the director’s relatives as well as villagers from the landlocked province, this deeply personal work on the plight of rural farmers has a striking feel of authenticity and poetry. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 21, 2023
It’s a gorgeous, quietly affecting film that finds an unassuming beauty in this simple life in rural China, but which doesn’t shy away from the extreme hardships faced by the very poorest. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAustin ConsidineJul 20, 2023
China’s leadership has a history of suppressing art that spotlights the failings of its ruling class and ideology, which is exactly what Li’s film does, with a script that feels only occasionally overwritten. That he succeeds without making it feel like homework — which is to say beautifully, humanely — is presumably what made the film so threatening. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJul 21, 2023
Return to Dust abounds in small poetic touches from the director and his lead characters. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineRyan SwenJul 20, 2023
The film is best in moments when the bond between two outcasts is made corporeal and fully present. Read full review
70
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJul 21, 2023
Despite these subtle barbs, Return to Dust ends up as an elegiac love story as the unlikely couple form a bond built on a foundation of total understanding and empathy. Read full review
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