Rosewater 2014

Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times: With Rosewater, Stewart proves he can pull back from the satirical comedy and become a thoughtful, incisive and questioning filmmaker. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: The film goes slightly beyond rigorous earnestness and settles into a kind of stubborn atonement. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: A clear-headed, sensitive and thoroughly impressive directorial debut for the Comedy Central host. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Jon Stewart's filmmaking debut "Rosewater" has much in common with "The Daily Show" - it's blaringly obvious, it's naive, it plays to the cheap seats and it's enamored with cheap jokes. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A persuasive production despite its limited budget ... Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: A finely wrought, powerful drama that tells the true story of an Iranian-born journalist's imprisonment and torture by the Islamic regime in Iran. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The virtue of this movie is its commitment to political ambiguity and emotional truth. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A solid, powerfully acted political drama about human endurance in the face of ideological oppression. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Centrist mush-basic, boilerplate human-interest stuff that's too shapeless to completely work as drama, and too depoliticized to be taken seriously as anything else. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Stewart proves to be an able filmmaker in "Rosewater." But he also shows hints of being something more. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What makes "Rosewater" different from similar entries in what might be called the Triumph of the Imprisoned Spirit genre is that the hero is hardly an ideologue, despite having sympathy for the Iranian reformers and the Green party. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Rosewater certainly has merit as an act of atonement on Stewart's part and a tribute to people like Bahari... In the end, however, the movie needs to stand on its own, apart from its noble intentions and the popularity of its writer-director. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Stewart's wryly observant qualities as a TV star serve him well in his feature film debut. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Stewart does a credible job of maintaining the story's immediacy, but I must say I felt relieved that the film wasn't a masterpiece. If it was, we'd have more reason to fear Stewart will leave The Daily Show. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Stewart's enthusiasm for his story and passion about injustice ring clear, but throughout what could have been a dreadfully somber film, he remembers to breathe. Read more

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly: Rosewater, starring the geeky-charismatic Gael Garcia Bernal as Bahari, is a gripping drama, smartly calibrated for Western audiences who still need an education in the bright, progressive, fight-back impulses in Iranian culture. Read more

James Rocchi, Film.com: "Rosewater" marks the debut of a director whose brains and guts are the equal or the better of his eye and heart ... Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Stewart and cinematographer Bobby Bukowski cover it all in a straightforward, watchable way, the performances are all sincere and solid and the situation is easy to respond to emotionally. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Stewart acquits himself solidly, though not thrillingly, as a beginning director ... Read more

Esther Breger, The New Republic: The main question Rosewater grapples with is whether Stewart can hack it as a filmmaker. The answer: sort of? Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Earnest, well-acted, less than urgent, but more than a vanity project. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The hard-focus clarity of the images (Bobby Bukowski did the cinematography) leads to an intimacy with anguish that passes into expressionism. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Stewart can never quite answer the question: Why this man's story, of all the ones that should be told? And why now, five years later? Read more

Tomas Hachard, NPR: The result neither portrays the suffering of Bahari's incarceration adequately nor lampoons the absurdities of the situation. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Rosewater ... has an urgency that's all about the storytelling smarts of its first-time writer-director. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: While it may seem like another triumph-over-adversity tale, the movie is really about what sustains us during impossible moments. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Mr. Stewart's interest in the material is obviously personal, but his movie transcends mere self-interest. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A strong, striking political drama. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is Jon Stewart's directorial debut; the talk show comedian has a handle on the material and conveys it clearly. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: That the movie is as tense and chilling as it is owes much to first-time director Jon Stewart's keen eye for the way humor surfaces even in the dark places. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: For a first effort, Stewart hasn't done a bad job. There's just the nagging feeling with "Rosewater" that a better movie was possible. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Though at times Rosewater is clearly the work of a first-timer still finding his voice, Stewart is indisputably a real filmmaker. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Stewart does a solid job of handling the facts of the time; it feels true to the moment, like a filmed Newsweek story. Creative acting, dramatizedthemes, gifted cinematic styling? Not so much. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Rosewater" is a reminder that America may have its critics, but at least there's little danger of the average citizen being arrested for appearing on a fake news show. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: It's a movie made for people who prefer to take their politics while sitting on the couch. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Stewart lets the truth roll out, the best he can, believing in the sanitizing effect of sunlight and the inevitable fate that awaits all despots. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: While the film keeps telling us that Bahari survived his ordeal by freeing his mind from imprisonment and eventually outsmarting his rosewater-scented interrogator, we are told that he's doing so more than we're seeing it. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The film settles into the kind of sobriety you've seen too often ... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Stewart has created an informative, dark and witty story imbued with black humor surrounding Bahari's confinement. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Rosewater is an earnest picture, but it's also got some juice - there's vitality and feeling in it, the secret ingredients so often missing from even the most well-intentioned first features. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In outline, Rosewater sounds earnest, one-note, relentless - something you'd watch out of a sense of duty. But it turns out to be a sly, layered work, charged with dark wit along with horror. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Rosewater" doesn't hector, nor does it giggle about the issue of press freedom. It's an impressive and important piece of storytelling. Read more