Shadows
Lion International Films | Release Date: November 11, 1959 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The film perfectly captured a specific time and place, illuminating simple truths regarding the human condition, while unveiling an important, powerful, and visionary new force in the American cinema. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Even though its rough edges (the wildly mismatched acting, the scenes that never take shape) look rougher today than they must have at the time, watching Shadows still feels like witnessing a mold breaking. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Arguably the founding work of the American independent cinema, John Cassavetes’s 1959 Shadows is the prototype for Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and all their progeny. Read full review
88
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This is the only Cassavetes film made without a full script (it grew out of acting improvs), and rarely has so much warmth, delicacy, and raw feeling emerged so naturally and beautifully from performances in an American film. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
Goldoni is spectacular here as a light-skinned black woman with a white admirer and an apartment full of her brother's hooligan buddies. And, oh, what shots of the era's New York movie marquees. [22 May 1998, p.6E]
80
Film ThreatStaff (Not Credited)
The low-key, natural performances are dramatically offset by the mercurial and incandescent Lelia Goldoni, the emotional heart of the film. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
Shadows is an unfinished picture in every sense of the word. Yet it is fitfully dynamic, endowed with a raw but vibrant strength, conveying an illusion of being a record of real people, and it is incontestably sincere. Read full review
80
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
Caught in the ecstasy of collective creation, a handful of earnest amateurs have almost accidentally produced a flawed but significant piece of folk art. Read full review
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
With a blue and moody Mingus soundtrack and steel-grey photography, it's still a delight. Read full review
80
The GuardianSteve Rose
It's a cool customer – the hip lingo and fast-talking characters all of a piece with its bebop score – but there's a scrupulous honesty to the story, too. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJeremiah Kipp
At 80 minutes, its cinematic flash fiction, and a suitable entry point into the lively body of work Cassavetes made. Read full review
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