Three Thousand Years of Longing
United Artists Releasing | Release Date: August 26, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 52 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
25
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerAug 25, 2022
It makes for a deeply unconventional sort of fairy tale, but this is George Miller we’re talking about. What else did we expect? Read full review
91
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 24, 2022
Director George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, with its superb A-list cast led by Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, plays quite nicely as an intelligent, warm-hearted, visually beautiful, movie that can be enjoyed at face value. Read full review
90
PolygonJoshua RiveraAug 26, 2022
The craft Miller brought to Fury Road’s relentless chases is now channeled into wondrous stillness, a canvas meant to capture the sheer yearning at the heart of a story. The desire to be known by and know others more fully. One could call that love. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 26, 2022
Three Thousand Years of Longing is indeed a cautionary tale, but it’s a complex, beautiful one, suggesting that love, longing, and loss are all parts of a vast, wondrous life. Read full review
90
Film ThreatTanja M. LadenAug 26, 2022
The film explores themes of free will, destiny, and the tales that we consume while also revealing how they become part of us as we pass them down to future audiences. Ultimately, however, Three Thousand Years of Longing is about bearing the weight of pure love with no one willing to ease the burden — yet resolving to give it away freely nonetheless. Read full review
90
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorMay 21, 2022
Three Thousand Years of Longing tells a fantastic and poignant story about storytelling, longing, and love. It's about the art of telling smaller, intimate stories at a time when big stories seem to only be valid. A fairy tale with more in common with "Babe" than "Mad Max," this movie reaffirms George Miller as one of the great magicians of cinema working today. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 25, 2022
[Miller's] mastery makes the movie eye-popping; his freedom and audacity make it surprising and unsettling. Read full review
86
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 31, 2022
Miller’s go-for-broke visuals and his stars’ fiercely committed work allow Three Thousand to speed by on wit, energy, and gushy, bleeding-heart passion. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 20, 2022
In fact, the two stars are so sweet and searching together — their characters’ respective power and mutual solitude pulling them together with practical magic — that some of the film’s more spectacular detours seem flimsy by contrast. Read full review
80
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiSep 2, 2022
Miller’s film is deceptively simple, but there is a tremendous amount of depth and nuance. Viewers will walk away thinking a lot about the film, and a second or third watch is needed to fully absorb the layers within its story. Read full review
80
EmpireBeth WebbAug 31, 2022
Elba’s performance as a lonely Djinn with a bottomless reserve of charm, paired with Miller’s unbridled energy, make this a modern fairy tale worth seeking out. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 31, 2022
It's a gentler, sadder movie than the dizzying trailer suggests, and less driven by plot than a stickler for storytelling like Alithea might prefer: a loopy little jewel-box reverie, slipped between two Furies. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 25, 2022
It’s an elegant and highly unexpected offering from George Miller that allows him to step away from the Mad Max universe if only for one interlude. Read full review
75
ColliderRoss BonaimeAug 25, 2022
Miller’s modern fairly tale is full of beauty, love, and care, even if the film often focuses on the grand instead of the modest moments. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrAug 23, 2022
Miller gets to play in a wide array of cultures as the djinn skips through time, all with their own shimmering palettes and fairy tale hyperrealism. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDerek SmithAug 22, 2022
George Miller’s film is a passionate exploration of how image-making is inextricable from storytelling. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCharles BramescoMay 21, 2022
The cumulative merits on display in Miller’s museum of amazement, from the whiz-bang recreations of freakified old-world grandeur to the humbler miracles shared between two wayward souls, we hang on every word of the narration — as sure a sign of a well-spun yarn as any. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerAug 25, 2022
In its loopy, beguiling, occasionally befuddling way, Three Thousand Years of Longing feels like it’s trying—and sometimes failing—to sum something up about Miller’s own history of loving strange movie magic. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 20, 2022
It’s a curious film, messy in all its ambition but consistently transfixing, an earnest labor of love—and one about love. Read full review
67
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 23, 2022
As swings go, Three Thousand Years of Longing is a miss, but there is something infectious about Miller’s confidence here: you’re never too far from an idea to enjoy. Read full review
65
ABC NewsPeter TraversAug 26, 2022
This romantic fantasy from visionary director George Miller is all over the place structurally, but odds are you won't be too bothered given the sparks ignited by Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba as a magical djinn hellbent on granting her three wishes. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenSep 1, 2022
Miller and cinematographer John Seale deliver some stunning tableaus, especially in The Djinn’s lush memories, but it all begins to feel as ephemeral as the spectral, CGI dust that swirls out of the movie’s various bottles. In short I appreciated the craft, but never felt the longing. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 24, 2022
Even if it ultimately doesn’t quite take off, it’s a marvel of craft and care and detail. It’s also not quite like anything else. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesQina LiuAug 24, 2022
Three Thousand Years of Longing is a cerebral film that barters in riddles. It’s a cautionary fairy tale about wishful thinking. It’s a flawed, but intoxicating kaleidoscope of stories. If only the film's ending were as strong as its beginning and middle. Read full review
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