What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
MUBI | Release Date: November 12, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarNov 26, 2021
The most entrancingly feel-good movie of the year. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMar 5, 2021
The camera often seems to capture seemingly quotidian moments, but Koberidze’s painterly eye elevates them to intimate flashes of poetry and delight. Read full review
96
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 21, 2022
Split into two parts and narrated by Koberidze himself, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? is a true magic act, intimate and massive at the same time. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJack KingMar 5, 2021
One finds oneself hard-pressed to find a wasted frame here. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangMar 5, 2021
We are active participants in the creation of this (or any) work of cinema. And given how much this movie loves the movies, as well as dogs, music, children, soccer, ice cream, the ancient Georgian town of Kutaisi, and the very process of falling in love, there is something immensely hopeful and moving about being thus invited to collude. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMar 5, 2021
In the sheer exuberance of its exploratory spirit, Koberidze’s film is very much of benefit to cinema – and any who feared that the art form was running out of new ways to find poetry in the real. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 12, 2021
In the meantime, this movie means to make us notice the marvelous in the everyday, in much the way that a great James Schuyler poem does. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 30, 2021
Too distracted to be a love story, too contained to be a city symphony, and not didactic enough to feel like an essay film, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? gradually coalesces into a kind of abstract pastoral romance more than anything else — it finds the romance that fringes everything around us, and captures it on camera with the unbearable lightness of a movie that knows we could never hope to see it with the naked eye. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellDec 19, 2022
At 150 minutes, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? could easily have been shorter and still achieved its intended emotional and aesthetic effects. But a river isn’t less pleasant for meandering before it reaches the ocean: if this is how it has to happen before we lose the thread of Lisa and Giorgi’s lives in the flow of others, then so be it. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 29, 2022
There’s a languid kind of magic to Koberidze’s approach, which, with its enchanting score, digressive montages and sparse dialogue, has roots in silent cinema but also feels refreshingly and genuinely original. Read full review
80
Little White LiesCaitlin QuinlanNov 22, 2022
In his idyllic city symphony, Koberidze celebrates the serendipity of fate and the rhythms of daily life that bring together what is meant to be. Read full review
75
The Film StageOrla SmithMar 16, 2021
More than a romance, or a fairy tale about sentient security cameras, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? is an ode to living in the moment and finding beauty in the familiar. It’s an endurance test of a film, but one rich with detail, if you have the patience to look for it. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 11, 2021
Pleasing, exasperating, poignant and coy, “What Do We See” is a loose, exceedingly leisurely meander through a series of momentous and banal moments that take place during an amble through the Georgian city of Kutaisi. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerOct 11, 2021
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? is an apt, simple fable that feels somewhat hopeful for our modern world—one where evil wins, but love overcomes. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GraySep 18, 2021
The film is an offbeat epic informed by a reverence for the past and a delicate wariness toward the future. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 23, 2022
This is a film that tries your patience a fair bit, and yet there is something attractive in its kind of innocence. Read full review
More From This Movie

82 Critic Reviews

5.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL