Sylvie's Love
Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): December 23, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
UproxxVince ManciniDec 30, 2020
Sylvie’s Love is heartbreaking and heart melting in almost equal measure, a film about professional disappointment and the importance of timing as much as it’s about love. I haven’t been so emotionally wrecked sitting alone at a festival movie since Brooklyn. Sylvie’s Love is damn near perfect Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyDec 23, 2020
Sylvie’s Love feels downright rebellious, daring to exist with its unapologetic old-fashioned quality at a time when many maddeningly seem to dismiss honest-to-god romances and proud women’s pictures as slight and outdated. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarDec 23, 2020
Sweeping and flawlessly produced, Ashe’s epic works as an inherently refreshing entry in the canon of a genre designed to make us sigh with knowing elation or tear up in misery thinking about our own bygone rendezvous. Read full review
90
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 30, 2020
The film’s styles, tones, and moods are as distinctive as its approach to jazz. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 23, 2020
Ashe is using a familiar, long-derided film genre both affectionately and critically to explore the gleaming surfaces of life as well as the anguish that lies beneath. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 22, 2020
Like the great Douglas Sirk melodramas of that time period, Sylvie’s Love is unabashedly sentimental and just gorgeous to behold — but the difference here is the terrific ensemble cast is primarily Black and Latinx. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJan 3, 2021
Like Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk and Todd Haynes’s Carol, Ashe takes the form of the 50s melodrama and recentres it on characters the genre has tended to ignore. This isn’t as politically restless as those films – it’s less interested in subverting the “woman’s picture” than establishing itself as one. Read full review
80
EmpireAmon WarmannDec 30, 2020
Combining beautiful aesthetics with winning performances from Thompson and Asomugha, Sylvie’s Love is the rare Black period drama that tells a sweet and satisfying love story without revolving around the racial adversity of the era. Read full review
80
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 22, 2020
Between the scorching chemistry of leads Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha and the glorious mid-century outfits, hair, décor and cars on display, Sylvie’s Love is a delectable valentine. Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeOct 12, 2020
It’s a film that both looks and feels the part, a handsomely made love story that’s easy to fall in love with. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 30, 2020
Thompson and Asomugha are nicely paired. Too much is made by critics of the notion of “screen chemistry,” but there is something complementary in the personalities of these two actors, as well as in the roles they’re playing. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 30, 2020
Love’s most radical act may be the simple fact of its Blackness — that the faces at the center of the screen are ones that for so many decades we’d mostly see only in the margins of a movie like this, or not at all. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartDec 30, 2020
With one slight wobble toward the conclusion, Ashe’s screenplay is terrific at letting its characters speak and act honestly: His dialogue is heartfelt and realistic. “Sylvie’s” is a love letter to the delights of a well-told love story. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 23, 2020
Ashe’s film gets a bit too flat for the big finale to arrive with the oomph that it should. And yet, as out of sync as you might get with the way that Sylvie’s Love riffs on its themes, you never want Ashe and his band to stop playing. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiDec 22, 2020
Sylvie’s Love lacks the ineffable spark that keeps it from fully transcending its period dress-up. There’s a pervasive self-consciousness on display that veers from delightful to forced depending on the goals of each scene. Sometimes the cast and the production design embrace the artifice strongly enough to make it look and sound organic. Other times, it just appears… artificial. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinOct 13, 2020
It's a film awash in scrupulously researched vintage production design, costumes and above all music, all rendered in a Technicolor palette that will send grandparents and fans of Golden Age cinema swooning with nostalgia. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkOct 12, 2020
Plotting and pacing asides, Sylvie’s Love is a rich and graceful picture in passages. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJan 7, 2021
Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, Sylvie’s Love is an ode to classic melodramas, with sumptuous set design, gorgeous costumes and an enveloping soundtrack of mid-century hits. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 24, 2020
This is more than retro, it’s a re-imagination of the past, of the stories and role models that could have been available to Black audiences (and white ones) but weren’t. Better late than never. Read full review
60
Screen RantRachel LaBonteDec 30, 2020
As a celebration of love and music, Sylvie's Love is a comforting and sweet movie that, while not breaking ground, is noteworthy in its earnestness. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 29, 2020
When the spell gets broken, temporarily or otherwise, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the craft and care of this affectionate reclamation and still feel that all the swooning that heaven allows is almost, but not quite, enough. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 23, 2020
Both performances are appealing, but Mr. Ashe’s screenplay is not well served by the laggard pace and low energy of his direction. Read full review
60
VarietyJessica KiangJan 31, 2020
More even than Declan Quinn’s sumptuously old-school cinematography and the throwback styling and stock footage exteriors that deliberately mimic the Technicolor romances of old, it’s the fresh-faced naiveté of the storytelling that feels so anachronistic. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 2, 2021
Sylvie’s Love comes off like a novel idea given every chance to shine, but let down by a maudlin TV movie script that needed polish. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePat BrownDec 22, 2020
The film never finds the spark that would imbue the love affair at its center with a sense of passion or urgency. Read full review
More From This Movie

74 Critic Reviews

6.3 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