Distant Voices, Still Lives 1988

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: A gripping and original piece of work, itself sure to be remembered as one of the finest films of the year. Read more

Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times: Just as you think you have its moves all doped out, a scene of such shocking beauty flashes before you that it takes your breath away. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Sadly, most of the time Distant Voices is a hit parade of Father's swiftest punches played to the hit parade that he might have been listening to on the radio. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Screen dreams are strangest and strongest when they hit close to home. In Terence Davies' searing [Distant Voices, Still Lives]... mystery resides in the vision of his mother, magically poised on the hall sill, washing the outside windows. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: The English film is one of those dimly realized personal statements that ultimately says a lot less than the written program notes that accompany it. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This beautiful memoir, conceivably one of the greatest of all English films, is so startling and original that we may not have the vocabulary to do it justice. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: With an unfailing eye for place, decor, costume, and gesture, the director glides his camera through tangles of memories to evoke joys and horrors with a similar sense of wonder. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: When a forty-four-year-old man makes a movie about his family and friends sitting around singing old tunes, you certainly don't expect an unforgettable amalgam of humor and heartbreak. But that is precisely what Terence Davies delivers. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Davies is unflinching in his hunt for truth and full of nothing but love and understanding for his characters. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: This isn't a film based on nostalgia, though; its very special qualities stem from the beautiful simplicity of direction, writing and playing, and the accuracy of the incidents depicted. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: Ultimately, Davies' choices have a powerful cumulative effect. In the latter section, he achieves a transporting poignancy of feeling. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: This British dirge about brutal fathers and bitter children is such a gloomy ceremony, you'll wish you'd brought carnations. Read more