82
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100VarietyVarietyAnthropology and entertainment are marvelously married in Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes. The first feature in an Australian Aboriginal language feels authentic to the core as it tells a cautionary tale set 1,000 years ago.
- 100Village VoiceVillage VoiceTo watch this movie (shot in breathtaking widescreen by cinematographer Ian Jones) is to enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning, the likes of which I have rarely encountered in cinema outside of the African tribal films of Ousmane Sembene.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterIn telling this ancient story with style and humor, de Heer and his Aboriginal collaborators promote cultural understanding and acceptance by stealth, if you will.
- 90The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThere is nothing more enthralling than a good yarn, and Ten Canoes interweaves two versions of the same story, one filmed in black and white and set a thousand years ago, and an even older one, filmed in color and set in a mythic, prehistoric past.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayLike a lot of folk tales, Ten Canoes peters out into something more prosaic than profound, but it flows like water, and has a deceptively gentle pull that proves hard to escape.
- 80Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallChicago ReaderAndrea GronvallInspired by anthropologist Donald Thomson's early-20th-century photographs, this collaboration between a Western filmmaker and the native people of Ramingining is an impressive achievement of ethnographic cinema.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirIt's a fascinating immersion within a highly ritualized Stone Age oral culture that, at least according to tradition, existed almost unchanged for thousands of years before the European arrival.
- 80EmpireEmpireTen Canoes is a rare and valuable movie, providing fascinating insight into another culture without pandering or being stuffy. Seek it out -- swim if you have to.
- 75TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghFunny, perceptive, bawdy, tragic and philosophical, pretty much everything a viewer -- or a listener -- could ask for.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyA rollicking good story set a millennium ago among Australian aborigines, Ten Canoes is one of those cultural-building exercises that genuinely entertains.