79
Metascore
21 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittDeeply personal, morally alert, and highly entertaining.
- 90The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenBy the end of this reflective, wise, often hilarious movie, you feel as though he (McElwee) has slapped a huge chunk of raw, palpitating life onto the screen.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerWhile making his new film, he (McElwee) imagines that his boy is looking back at his screen image from some distant point in the future, when McElwee himself is gone. No child of a moviemaker could ask for a more beautiful bequest.
- 80VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyWitty, thoughtful and illuminating.
- 75New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsThis might have come off as both self-indulgent and preachy if McElwee weren't so persuasively earnest. "Bright Leaves" becomes both a mystery and memoir in progress and though the filmmaker does not find the truth he is looking for, it was clearly a quest worth undertaking.
- 75New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickIn a season of hyperven tilating political docu mentaries - witness Michael Moore and his imitators - Ross McElwee shows just how far subtlety can go with his latest charming effort, Bright Leaves.
- 75Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrWhere most documentaries offer us facts to hold on to, his (McElwee's) are obsessed with the mystery of things we don't know and never will.
- 70Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonContinuing the autobiographical torrent begun nearly 30 years ago, Bright Leaves is an utterly mundane miracle, a sampling of gentle insight and poetic retrospection quietly at odds with the exploitative culture around it.
- 70The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasUnder his (McElwee's) watch, the possibilities of a documentary seem to expand by the minute, incorporating not only journalistic truths, but also personal insights and philosophy, unique regional textures, and unexposed pockets of humanity.