Tsotsi
Miramax Films | Release Date: February 24, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Powerful crime drama does more than just expose the criminal underbelly of South African township life. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What a simple and yet profound story this is. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This powerful South African drama turns on the debut performance of young Presley Chweneyagae as the hood, and it's magnificent: a stone-faced killer in the opening scenes, he becomes an open book as the story progresses, as frightened, confused, and needy as the baby he drags around town in a shopping bag. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
It grabs you from a symbolic opening scene of gang members rolling the dice -- the odds, it soon becomes clear, are stacked against them getting lucky -- and never lets go. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Tsotsi emerges as being among the finest films ever to come out of Africa. It is a brilliant, jolting and altogether powerful blast of energy and emotion. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Brutal but believable, the film in some ways harks back to early Hollywood, when Jimmy Cagney or Richard Widmark played callow villains out of their depth in everyday life. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
An explosive wide-screen vision of the street life of Soweto, bursting with music, danger and vitality, and the extraordinary story of a ruthless young criminal known only as Tsotsi. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Made with local talent by a South African director, Tsotsi is lifted above the current slew of movies portraying Africa as a helpless victim of its many problems, redeemable only by sympathetic white Westerners (as in John Boorman’s sermonizing 2004 drama "In My Country," and to a lesser degree "The Constant Gardener"), by its vigorously transcendent spirit of self-help. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
As Tsotsi, Chweneyagae turns his face into a living battle mask -- curved, molded and sandpapered into smooth ruthlessness. But as the story unfolds, Tsotsi's mask begins to crack, and his humanity begins to flow through. Read full review
80
EmpireLiz Beardsworth
Hood handles his material so deftly that a conclusion which could have been mawkish and sentimental is instead bittersweet, both painful and quietly affirming. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
Packs an unexpected emotional wallop. Gavin Hood's film tells a story of violence and redemption that's even more remarkable when you consider that neither of the lead performers had ever acted in a movie previously. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Based on a play by Athol Fugard, Tsotsi is South Africa's entry in this year's Oscar race for Best Foreign-Language Film. This remarkable movie means to shake you, and boy does it ever. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
When a director can take a reprehensible monster and, over the course of a scant 90 minutes, turn audience reaction from distaste to sympathy, that's the mark of an adept filmmaker. This occurs in Tsotsi. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Though the story teeters on easy sentimentality, it doesn't succumb. Though unabashedly emotional, it isn't maudlin. Tsotsi's story feels believable. It is made all the more engaging by a wonderful soundtrack of African Kwaito music. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Tense, fiercely optimistic movie. Read full review
75
PremiereKelly Borgeson
Hood's film, with its bold, beautiful cinematography and hard-thumping kwaito music, brings us into a different world, and then helps us to understand it. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The result is the kind of feel-bad/feel-good movie that brazenly manipulates our response and leaves us grateful for it -- so relentlessly dark is the premise that, by the end, we just need to believe in the prospect of light. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a solid, earnest drama of moral redemption that places old cliches in an unfamiliar setting. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's compelling material, even if you don't completely buy Tsotsi's transition. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
With a predictable and borderline manipulative plot, Tsotsi depends on strong performances for its impact, and its cast delivers. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
To enjoy it, you have to make a leap of faith wide enough to sail over a Grand Canyon of disbelief. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Aside from its South African setting and flavor, there isn't a lot in Tsotsi that differs from its legion of similar Hollywood counterparts. But the movie's heart, along with Hood's refusal to sugarcoat the grim reality, wins you over no matter how many times you've seen this story told. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Evocatively shot by cinematographer Lance Gewer in warm browns and reds that make Tsotsi seem all the more chilling, the film records his gradual metamorphosis from id-driven brute into empathic, if crude, care-giver. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie Felperin
Powered by a pounding soundtrack of dance hall Kwaito music, the pic has vital, urban energy similar to the Brazilian crossover "City of God" but with a tauter, more conventional storyline. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
To his credit, Mr. Hood's meditation on truth and reconciliation doesn't traffic in the cheap thrills of art-house exploitation, like "City of God"; he wrings tears with sincerity, not cynicism. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Whatever its weaknesses, Tsotsi is redeemed by its excellent performances. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Presley Chweneyagae's Tsotsi makes his presence deeply felt. In a world of heedless children wielding guns, his tale is a heartening one.
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The cast is so good that a kind of counterpoint arises between the riskily lachrymose story and the firm verity of the acting. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJessica Winter
A widescreen wallow in socially enforced slum nihilism brought to you by Miramax, Tsotsi could be pegged as "City of God" relocated to the Soweto shanties, but it eschews the ironic swagger and strobe-speed action of Fernando Meirelles's lurid jigsaw for a more conventional arc. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In trying to find the decency in a killer, the film anxiously accounts for his every misdeed. It's a little like watching "City Of God" morph into "Three Men And A Baby." Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
More calculated than a Starbucks sampler CD, the picture could win the up-from-hardship award. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Tsotsi never comes across as anything but a brutal cipher, and serious issues such as black-on-black crime in the townships are left unexplored. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Ends in a cascade of sentimentality straight out of Hollywood. Not even Chweneyagae's excellent acting or Lance Gewer's dark photography can save the film. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
A confused and improbable redemption song. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
What Tsotsi fails to explain is how the mere introduction of a baby can melt the cruel cycle of criminality and disregard for others. Read full review
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