82
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanIranian director Jafar Panahi's Crimson Gold is an anti-blockbuster--a deceptively modest undertaking that brilliantly combines unpretentious humanism and impeccable formal values.
- 100Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittIt's a troubling, courageous, compulsively watchable work of art.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterRichard James HavisThe Hollywood ReporterRichard James HavisA flawlessly executed character study.
- 90The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasProvides one of the rare glimpses of the upper class to come out of recent Iranian cinema--the last one in memory was 1996's exquisite, Ibsen-esque melodrama "Leila"--and director Jafar Panahi (The Circle) captures it vividly through his hero's wounded obsession.
- 80VarietyLisa NesselsonVarietyLisa NesselsonSucceeds as a universal account of frustration applicable to any urban center where the gap between haves and have-nots is tauntingly visible.
- 75New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardAnother excellent example of how Iranian cinema uses deceptively simple techniques to decode devastating truths about human nature.
- 75New York PostJonathan ForemanNew York PostJonathan ForemanCrimson Gold has been likened to an Iranian "Taxi Driver," but it's nothing of the sort, though it is powerful in a quiet, minimalist way.
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneIts characters are no different from the rest of us, in the cluster of their annoyances and kicks, yet utterly removed from us by a system that frowns upon ordinary desire. Jafar Panahi's movie, unsurprisingly, has been outlawed in Iran. Nobody likes a prophet. [19 January 2004, p. 93]
- 70The New York TimesDana StevensThe New York TimesDana StevensThe occasional obviousness of the film's themes is more than balanced by the subtlety of its methods and by the stolid, irreducible individuality of its protagonist, Hussein.
- 60New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerWatching it is like getting a peek behind the curtain. But it's frustrating, too, because the casting of Emadeddin as a murderer-in-the-making precludes any psychological depth. And as an indictment of social inequality, which is the film's calling card, Panahi inadvertantly makes a far better case for the haves than for the have-nots.