Set Fire to the Stars
Strand Releasing | Release Date: June 12, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinJun 18, 2015
Gorgeous, evocative and well performed. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 10, 2015
The result is wintry and melancholy, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” or “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” in tone. And because of that, it’s a trifle duller than the man himself surely must have been. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 7, 2015
At least it doesn't make the biopic mistake of attempting to check off every moment of a man's life over the course of a few hours' worth of running time. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJun 12, 2015
As tedious as Set Fire to the Stars gets, it remains watchable courtesy of the stunning black and white cinematography by Chris Seager. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeJun 11, 2015
Its appreciation of Thomas’ work remains superficial, while the polished filmmaking never quite finds its own poetry. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungJun 11, 2015
A steady, austere treatment of a notoriously and riotously rambunctious subject, Set Fire to the Stars takes a non-incendiary, safe-hands approach to potentially combustible material. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJun 11, 2015
Set Fire to the Stars barely skims the surface of characters you wish had been given more dimension, but as a snapshot of postwar academia and its pretensions, it exerts a creepy fascination. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKen GuidryJun 11, 2015
It’s a nice enough, pleasant enough film with a couple solid performances. But when you’re making a movie about a man as unique, profound, and complex as Dylan Thomas, and you have nothing to say about him, you don’t have much of a movie. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartJun 11, 2015
Andy Goddard’s feature debut is shot stylishly in black and white, but deals in themes that feel equally retro. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 10, 2015
A harrowing but tedious chronicle of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’ time in America in the 1950s. Read full review
50
The DissolveJen ChaneyJun 9, 2015
Visually striking, meticulously rendered, a tiny bit pretentious, and emotionally inscrutable. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 11, 2015
High art swings sort of low in this watchable but thematically repetitive drama. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 9, 2015
An energetic, well-acted, handsomely mounted b&w literary tell-all whose script would be laughed out of the room by its famous subjects. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 10, 2015
An exercise in tasteful pointlessness, shot in flat black and white and scored (by Gruff Rhys, of all people) with tinkling piano and sawing strings that evoke nothing so much as an aura of cut-rate class. Read full review
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