Sweetgrass
Cinema Guild | Release Date: January 6, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass memorably captures a dying way of American life, a marvelously untrammeled American landscape and at least two animals — men and sheep — that despite their millennia-long domestic relationship still have a spark of wildness in them. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 9, 2013
In Sweetgrass, a graceful and often moving meditation on a disappearing way of life, there is little here that is objective and much that is magnificent. Read full review
90
VarietyRonnie ScheibJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass offers a one-of-a-kind experience. Read full review
90
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass reminds us of the stupefying magnificence of its setting—beautiful for spacious skies and mountain majesties—while never letting us forget its formidable perils. Read full review
90
SlateDana StevensJul 9, 2013
Though Sweetgrass has moments of great beauty, the film is never nostalgic or idealizing about its human or ovine subjects. It shows the relationship of human and domesticated animal—and the relationship of both to nature—as a productive and symbiotic yet often brutal struggle. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 9, 2013
A meditative and intensely beautiful documentary. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass is an unexpectedly intoxicating documentary, unexpected because it blends high artistic standards with the grueling reality of one of the toughest, most exhausting of work environments. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 9, 2013
This beautiful and hypnotic documentary shows the agony and the ecstasy of herding sheep up into Montana's Beartooth mountains for the summer pasture. Read full review
80
Total FilmStaff [Not Credited]Jul 9, 2013
With its slow tracking shots, complete disregard for edited narrative and endless baaing and whistling, it’ll either bore you to tears or hypnotise you with its weird Herzogian beauty. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass’ unbroken shots of often-repetitive activity have a beguiling quality to them, their very monotony encouraging a deeper absorption and reflection, but hard facts aren’t easy to come by. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineNick SchagerJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass achieves a borderline abstract splendor that's furthered by the directors' avoidance of delving deeply into its human subjects, whose backstories and general circumstances are only alluded to through fly-on-wall scraps. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubJul 9, 2013
What Sweetgrass lacks in context it makes up for in voyeuristic camera work that reveals a gritty beauty in the landscape, along with the human and livestock characters. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJul 9, 2013
The film is less about people or this specific herding ritual than about the majesty of the landscape and the interplay between these animals, their keepers, and the dictates of nature itself. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. MusettoJul 9, 2013
The filmmakers wisely avoid the temptation to be cutesy (remember that penguin movie?) and sentimental. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJul 9, 2013
Sweetgrass is austere enough to make Frederick Wiseman's films look like Jersey Shore episodes, yet it has its own suspense. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 9, 2013
It's a gorgeous and, believe it or not, riveting documentary . . . about sheep. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeJul 9, 2013
An anthropological marvel and an animal-drive movie that belongs beside the classics of the genre - Red River and Lonesome Dove. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichJul 9, 2013
As subcultural anthropology, it’s unassailable. Yet the often ugly-looking DV aesthetic dilutes the cumulative effect. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJul 9, 2013
The filmmakers' motivation couldn't be clearer: They needed to capture a way of life that may soon exist only on film and in memory. Read full review
60
The TelegraphSukhdev SandhuJul 9, 2013
It’s a powerful testimonial to a fading way of life. Read full review
More From This Movie

80 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL