The Pearl Button
Kino Lorber | Release Date: October 23, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorApr 7, 2016
This haunting Chilean documentary is more poetry than journalism as filmmaker Patricio Guzman compares the fate of the indigenous people of Patagonia with that of the disappeared of the Pinochet regime. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinNov 19, 2015
By turns lyrical, impressionistic and profound, the documentary The Pearl Button requires patience but offers stirring rewards. Read full review
100
IndieWireKevin B. LeeSep 30, 2015
The Pearl Button is a vivid, essential portal to understanding not only the heritage of a nation, but also the art of nonfiction cinema. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 30, 2015
Guzmán's essential thesis seems to be that, in turning its back on the ocean, modern Chile lost a crucial part of its identity. But he also puts forward the extraordinary idea that the water has a memory, and that if you listen closely enough, you can hear the voices of the disappeared. Read full review
90
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldOct 22, 2015
A master of voice-over and metaphor (the title alone has an amazing payoff), [Mr. Guzmán] sifts through essential truths and draws links between Chile’s past and present inhabitants. Read full review
90
Screen DailyLee MarshallSep 30, 2015
Tools associated with fiction are used to tell the truth, and an elegant tone is deployed to disguise a righteous fury. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 30, 2015
It is the director’s extraordinary intuition about the synchronicity of history, geography and the physical universe – a mysterious relationship that has nothing to do with cause and effect – that gives the film and its predecessor their undeniable power. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughNov 12, 2015
As often happens in Guzmán’s films, The Pearl Button keeps returning to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship of 1973-90, during which thousands of Chileans were “disappeared,” taken away and never seen again alive. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayOct 21, 2015
A haunting mediation on water replacing its predecessor’s preoccupation with stars and dirt. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMar 14, 2016
The connections might be a little more strained and diffuse than in "Nostalgia for the Light", but their cumulative power is strong nonetheless. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleSep 30, 2015
Inhabiting the space between fact and fiction, where repressed memories often seek refuge, The Pearl Button weaves a fascinating, yet traumatic route through Chile's recent history. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoDec 3, 2015
This is history of a personalized and meditative sort, and you ought to give it a chance. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoOct 20, 2015
Despite the defeated tone of Patricio Guzmán's tales, a spotlight is placed on the power of persistence. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 20, 2015
The voiceover is lyric, the oceanscapes majestic, the anthropology fascinating, and the connections more quizzical and uncertain than in Nostalgia for the Light. This time you have to look harder to follow him. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireOct 23, 2015
For most of its 80-minute length, The Pearl Button meditates lyrically on water and its effects on humankind. Then it makes a sharp turn into evoking the horrors of the Pinochet regime, a transition that feels awkward and rather forced, diluting the film’s ultimate impact. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid ParkinsonMar 14, 2016
Despite the striking photography, this fascinating denunciation of 150 years of persecution and oppression lacks Guzmán's customary trenchancy and restraint. Read full review
60
VarietyJay WeissbergSep 30, 2015
What “Nostalgia for the Light” did for the desert, The Pearl Button is meant to do for water, but the deft melding of past and present that characterized Patricio Guzman’s earlier film becomes muddied here by the Natural Science 101 voiceover and an unsatisfying bridge between two rather disparate subjects. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanNov 19, 2015
The Pearl Button may not answer all the questions it raises, yet it is an absorbing experience — at least for anyone with a taste for beauty over insight. Read full review
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