State Like Sleep
Orchard, The | Release Date: January 4, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
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
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowJan 4, 2019
Stories like this one remind us that we need to find a way to cope with the random and the unknowable. Read full review
70
VarietyNick SchagerApr 27, 2018
Aided by Christopher Blauvelt’s sumptuous cinematography, this consistently surprising film slinks along with melancholic dreaminess, matching the fugue state that plagues its grief-stricken protagonist. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJoe BlessingMay 2, 2018
Overall, State Like Sleep is a satisfying movie about grief and an unsatisfying mystery. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayJan 3, 2019
The mix of genres and the overload of characters are too much of a drag on the film. Waterston, though, is a wonder throughout, capturing the deep confusion as a woman whose life has been so upended that she wonders if she’ll ever see straight again. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 8, 2019
Maybe my assessment is colored by the dud ending, since the journey to its criminally unsatisfying final scenes is tantalizingly dreamlike and unnerving. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartJan 4, 2019
Despite the film’s wispiness, though, there is always something compelling about Waterston, who is usually the best part of any film she’s in (see also: “Inherent Vice,” “Alien: Covenant”). Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 3, 2019
I’d say writer-director Danluck’s story unravels entirely too easily, but that’s crediting her with “raveling” that she never quite gets around to. Read full review
50
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanJan 3, 2019
Danluck (“North of South, West of East”) gets us halfway there, with a solid cast and crew, an apt depiction of emotional exhaustion, and a heroine we want to root for in a strange setting we’re ready to embrace. But she floats too ineffectually between dream and nightmare, never settling on one or committing to the other. Read full review
50
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeJan 3, 2019
The images serve the dialogue, but they are not given a chance to expand the story, depriving the movie of texture and energy. Danluck dives with Katherine into the depths of grief-stricken obsession, and her film suffocates for want of room to breathe. Read full review
50
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyApr 27, 2018
There is not enough in the performances or the script to set it apart from the constant flow of indie crime dramas. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichApr 27, 2018
Meredith Danluck’s State Like Sleep doesn’t really go anywhere, but it lulls you into enough of a stupor to enjoy the time it takes to get there. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 27, 2018
The whole thing aspires to art, but can really only be appreciated as trash. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 3, 2019
Danluck's unfocused direction makes Katherine less a grief-struck enigma than a dull somnambulist; and the film's copious flashbacks, instead of drawing us into the character's confused emotions, mostly suggest that the film can't decide how to tell its story. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedJan 4, 2019
The first thriller of the new season is a bomb called State Like Sleep, and it’s about as thrilling as a power failure in Antarctica. One of the January cast-offs that failed to make the cut in the 2018 year-end releases, it’s a good example of why January is always dreary, in more ways than one. Read full review
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