76
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Portland OregonianPortland OregonianThe director manages to maintain a steady streak of grim humor. Extreme repression can be bleakly funny in its idiocy, when viewed from a distance.
- 90Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThis remarkably revealing and timely film, in which the depiction of pain and sorrow is suffused with a sense of beauty and a graceful, flowing style, more than lives up to glowing advance notices.
- 88Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonWatching this film wakes you up; it is a window on an Iran and an Afghanistan we should have taken account of long ago -- seen though a master's eye, felt through a poet's touch.
- 88Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanCharlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanKandahar found itself in real-life controversy last December, when one of its actors was accused of murder.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertKandahar does not provide deeply drawn characters, memorable dialogue or an exciting climax. Its traffic is in images.
- 80VarietyDeborah YoungVarietyDeborah YoungA visually exalting, emotionally horrifying view of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittWhile it's often harsh in style and melancholy in subject, Kandahar taps into veins of humor and compassion as well.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanWith its lyrical vision of oppression, looks, if anything, milder now than it might have before the war.
- 63New York PostJonathan ForemanNew York PostJonathan ForemanUnfortunately, you are often distractingly aware that you are watching re-enactments of real events.
- 50The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottKandahar feels like a Magritte painting rendered in sand tones, and your eyes are drawn to the screen. There aren't enough of these moments, though, and Mr. Makhmalbaf lessens their power by repeating them.