83
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireRogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireTerrestrial Verses, one of the most brilliant and provocative films to emerge from Iran recently, has qualities that link it to both the modernist formal traditions of post-1979 Iranian cinema and the more recent trend of social and political asperities aimed at the authoritarian repressiveness of the Islamic Republic.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenTerrestrial Verses is a marvel of potent understatement.
- 90The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonThe New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonEach small humiliation, taken alone, will raise your blood pressure a little. But put them all together, and more seismic reverberations may finally rattle a society to its core.
- 83IndieWireRyan LattanzioIndieWireRyan LattanzioThis film is as muted in its approach to character and drama as its color palette, but the result is devastating.
- 83The PlaylistJihane BousfihaThe PlaylistJihane BousfihaThough the structure of the vignettes can grow repetitive as the film moves along to a scene nearly identical to the one that came before, Terrestrial Verses never falters in challenging traditional notions while simultaneously providing a glimmer of hope.
- 80VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangThis is punchy first-person filmmaking, from the point of view of the last person you want to be.
- 80Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesWall Street JournalZachary BarnesIt is a modest, methodical movie-in-vignettes that demonstrates the far-reaching, constrictive force of Iran’s regime and the society it has created. It is also a canny representation of the kind of straight-faced authoritarian illogic that creates its own delusional reality, which is then forced upon a people.
- 75The Film StageDavid KatzThe Film StageDavid KatzThrough their concentrated and pared-down survey of institutional power, Asgari and Khatami show foremost how no behavior and social practice is spared the state’s gaze, and personal autonomy––especially for those outside the elites––remains only a myth.
- 70Screen DailyNeil YoungScreen DailyNeil YoungWhile there is no doubting the filmmakers’ admirably humanistic and progressive intentions, however, the picture itself somehow ends up less than the sum of its often-impressive parts.
- 63Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeSlant MagazineSteven ScaifeThe sense of repetition that the film leans into in order to acknowledge the inescapable grip of the state is as much a feature as it is a bug.