Not One Less

A beautiful and genuinely spirit-lifting film about poverty and education.

A splendid, assured piece of storytelling.

Zhang's work is always worth watching, but this is the first of his films in which the sorrows are so heart-rending, its many comic moments so laugh-out-loud human.

It's an excellent movie for kids, because it is about how amazing children can be.

An empowering film for children, showing them at their most capable, working through problems and finding innovative solutions to overcome what seems like an insurmountable obstacle.

At first, the picture is moving. . And suddenly charm turns to quasi-commie didacticism.

Its resolution reeks of phoniness and self-congratulation, even if some of the narrative strands leading up to it are fairly absorbing.