84
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
positive
17(94%)
mixed
1(6%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 18 Critic Reviews
100
Ceylan, who also served as cinematographer, frames the affecting, unstudied performances in gorgeously chosen shots and nonevents that sometimes teeter on the edge of comedy before knocking us breathless with their emotional power.
100
Mood, atmosphere, and character are more important than story twists in this unassuming, acutely observant drama.
100
A Chekhovian tale of major artistic power.
90
An arthouse film par excellence, a consummately made study of loneliness and frustration.
90
The narrative, capped by a brief bad dream and the capture of a mouse, isn't always legible, but it feeds into a monumental, luminous visual style like no other.
90
The compositions are masterful, especially the snow-covered scenes in Istanbul and, most memorably, the spectacle of an overturned ship in the wintry harbor.
90
Straightforward, droll, brutally honest and arresting.
90
The film's extraordinary shifts from windswept sorrow (Mahmut watching from a distance as his ex-wife departs Istanbul for a new life in Canada) to deadpan comedy (the cousins' carefully engineered capture of a household rodent) are uniquely, triumphantly their maker's own.
90
A beautifully made, unapologetically artistic piece of work.
88
If "Starsky & Hutch" is your idea of art, keep your distance from Distant, the droll new movie from maverick Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. If, on the other hand, you're searching for something that will remain with you long after leaving the theater, run, don't walk, to Distant.
