Goodbye Solo 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: I felt the film was incredibly stripped down -- which is fine -- but there's nothing else to sort of help build it back up again. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I'm not sure what it would take for Bahrani to reach the audience he deserves, but making one good film after another can't hurt. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Bahrani's new movie, Goodbye Solo, offers further proof that he is one of the best reasons to keep going to the movies. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Writer-director] has made a true drama, a tug-of-war between hope and resignation in which neither player openly speaks to what's coming. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The emotion here is genuine, but the outlook is tough: in Bahrani's movies we're all aliens to each other. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: What began as something of a lark becomes increasingly grave, and the actors skillfully adjust to that change in tone. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Continues [Bahrani's] persistent, sympathetic documentation of first-generation immigrants on the margins of society. And in an indie world too long dominated by navel-gazers, Bahrani's work has become an important corrective. Read more

Boston Globe: For a movie critic, one of the pleasures of Bahrani's approach to moviemaking is the opportunity to write about feelings and behavior, to continue to wonder about the characters' inner lives weeks after leaving the movie theater. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Goodbye Solo is a deceptive film. Its style is spare, rigorous, almost anti-dramatic, but it deals thoughtfully with some of the most complex elements of the human equation. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The crazy-quilt quality of these immigrants mixing it up with Southern rednecks like William is deftly underplayed, and so it has more resonance for us. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A playful, elusive movie that isn't so much heartwarming as soul-cleansing. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Creating his fiction shrewdly, Ramin Bahrani ultimately suggests that finality, too, has its beauty, and must be valued as much as endless possibility. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Touching and uplifting, Goodbye Solo is a small gem. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: A darkly poetic parable of the solitude of human existence, somewhat ameliorated by the occasional generosity of the human spirit. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A quietly soulful study of two very different men. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The lack of melodrama coupled with moments of quiet celebration make Goodbye Solo a more uplifting tale than one might expect with such a less-than-joyous premise. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Bahrani is the new great American director. He never steps wrong. In Goodbye Solo, he begins with a situation that might unfold in a dozen different ways and makes of it something original and profound. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Most of the movie's subterranean emotion is found in the unsettled relationship between Solo and William, and in the extraordinary performances by the two leading men. Read more

Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie starts fast and the pace rarely relents. Goodbye Solo is almost frighteningly alive: Other filmmakers must wonder exactly how Ramin Bahrani packs so much personality in what could have been standard indie fare. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: There's hope yet for world cinema if an Iranian-American director can take the premise of an Iranian film, set it in North Carolina, cast the lead roles with an African fashion model and Elvis Presley's former bodyguard, and produce something utterly new. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Goodbye Solo is the sort of film that truly defies categorization, and that may pose a challenge to some moviegoers. But there are certain works of art to which the rules do not apply. This is one of them. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: What happens in Goodbye Solo meets the complex demands of good classic storytelling. Read more

Greg Quill, Toronto Star: Every moment -- including a physically exhausting climactic scene that both confounds expectations and compounds the film's poetic majesty -- is evidence of a masterpiece. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: An endearing character piece shot through with beauty and humility in which, thanks to his leads' open, sometimes vulnerable performances, tolerance and respect take precedence. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: The overall effect of Goodbye Solo is of living through a drama of huge subjects, articulated in the vernacular. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Utterly engrossing dual-character study, unfolding with a serene disregard for indie quirkiness, Goodbye Solo radiates authenticity. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Bahrani possesses a disciplined sense of composition and form, a vision of the world that extends beyond the boundaries of his own navel, and the understanding that it is possible to make films about class and race in this country without pandering. Read more