Critic Reviews

This beautifully sculpted poetic naturalism has more in common with the expressive use of words in the great screenplays of '40s and '50s than with modern movies.

What could have been a parlor game becomes a surprisingly rich sketchbook, boosted by the work of fine actors.

Garcia is a thoughtful filmmaker not only by the group of actors he has gathered, but in remembering that there has been and will be people watching his movie.

A bold film both in its storytelling strategies and its filmmaking logistics.

Together, however, they add up to a film that may be the closest movies have come to the cinematic equivalent of a collection of Chekhov short stories.

That rare episode film that actually accrues a cumulative power and doesn't merely proceed from one segment to the next.

As a film composed entirely of nine continuous long takes, Nine Lives certainly qualifies as unique. But what makes it rarer and more auspicious is that it offers such a rich bounty of great roles for middle-aged women.

The scenes are so dramatically cogent the characters' lives seem to stretch far beyond the concluding blackouts.

García wanted to paint a canvas of nine elements, rather than one large element; and, though only a few of the vignettes are related, the film leaves us with a sense of wholeness, not of stunt.

A movie like this, with the appearance of new characters and situations, focuses us; we watch more intently, because it is important what happens.