DistantMovie Reviews

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Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Ceylan, who also served as cinematographer, frames the affecting, unstudied performances in gorgeously chosen shots and nonevents that sometimes teeter on the edge of comedy before knocking us breathless with their emotional power. Read full review

  • 90
    L.A. Weekly | Scott Foundas

    The film's extraordinary shifts from windswept sorrow (Mahmut watching from a distance as his ex-wife departs Istanbul for a new life in Canada) to deadpan comedy (the cousins' carefully engineered capture of a household rodent) are uniquely, triumphantly their maker's own. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    Straightforward, droll, brutally honest and arresting. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    The compositions are masterful, especially the snow-covered scenes in Istanbul and, most memorably, the spectacle of an overturned ship in the wintry harbor. Read full review

  • 90
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    A beautifully made, unapologetically artistic piece of work. Read full review

  • 90
    Variety | David Stratton

    An arthouse film par excellence, a consummately made study of loneliness and frustration. Read full review

  • 75
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    Long stretches go by without dialogue or discernible action. But there are significant rewards for those willing to accept the movie's deliberate pace. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    A movie like this touches everyday life in a way that we can recognize as if Turkey were Peoria. I can imagine a similar film being made in America, although Americans might talk more. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Jonathan Curiel

    A minimalist drama that takes its mood from Turkey's wintry terrain and the uneasy relationship between two bullheaded cousins. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    Such an accurate depiction of cramped spirits, small-mindedness and men unable to make changes in their lives takes its toll. Distant feels as if it's going nowhere in no particular hurry, and finally leaves us distant from its characters. Read full review

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