70
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleIf Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue and its intimate tapestry of peasant fortitude and artistic endeavor won’t be as immediately resonant to audiences outside of China as his expansive masterpieces “A Touch of Sin” or “Still Life” are, it’s still a valuable document.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe movie is an affecting group portrait and also a complex and subtle piece of literary criticism.
- 80Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangThe rhythms are uneven, the patterns of meaning often elusive. But they coalesce into a moving glimpse of lives lived and artistic legacies forged in the shadow — and sometimes the harsh, glaring light — of momentous historical change.
- 75The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorJia’s earnest approach has always been endearing and Swimming Out sees it in full flight.
- 75The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAcross the extended, handsomely shot sit-down interviews (with Ma’s daughter and the three other writers), what emerges is a fragmentary oral history of Chinese rural life across several transformative decades of the 20th century: family stories, tragedies, remembered slogans, the particulars of trying to grow crops in alkaline soil or coming of age as the son of a declared “counterrevolutionary.”
- 75RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyIf you’re not too conversant with the regions or works under consideration, the viewer has a choice of laboring to connect the dots unassisted, or just kicking back and letting the people and their recollections and philosophical reflections wash over you, like the sea of the movie’s title.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungIt’s the opposite of sensational; quiet, dignified and ruminative, it gets far closer to real Chinese people than a TV-style travelogue, though its many references to events in modern Chinese history will probably lose the casual viewer.
- 63Slant MagazineChris BarsantiSlant MagazineChris BarsantiJia Zhang-ke’s film is a quietly reflective, intermittently rambling rumination on an explosively momentous period in Chinese history.
- 50VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeThe result, though intermittently stirring and often luminously shot, represents something of a chore for all but the most ardent Jia completists — and even some of them may be left adrift by the literary scope of a film that does surprisingly little to contextualize its subjects for viewers unfamiliar with their work.