81
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMore than a million people have been displaced in central China in the cause of generating electrical power to meet the needs of the future; Jia's flowing river of a picture washes over a few of them as they adjust to life's currents in the present.
- 100Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsThe first great film of the year. It’s beautiful but so much more—full of subtle feeling, framed by a monstrous, eroding landscape.
- 88The Globe and Mail (Toronto)The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Perhaps Jia is trying to prove the point that the future has already arrived. Or perhaps he is suggesting that the truth is stranger than science fiction. This is today's China: Anything is possible.
- 80Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanAs usual, Jia's people tend toward the opaque--one of the movie's most enthusiastic conversations is conducted with ringtones. But his compositions have their own eloquence. Everything's despoiled and yet--as rendered in cinematographer Yu Lik-wai's rich, impossibly crisp HD images--everything is beautiful.
- 80The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisA modern master of postmodern discontent, Jia Zhang-ke is among the most strikingly gifted filmmakers working today whom you have probably never heard of.
- 80Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThis 2006 drama may seem to be worlds apart from the surreal theme-park setting of Jia's previous film, "The World," but there are similarities of theme, style, scale, and tone: social and romantic alienation in a monumental setting, a daring poetic mix of realism and lyrical fantasy, and an uncanny sense of where our planet is drifting.
- 75New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsThere is no turning back; the biggest project in China since the Great Wall and the Grand Canal has claimed its human cost and now must prove its own worth. -
- 70The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyDespite all this desolation and depression, however, Still Life is an extremely beautiful movie.
- 50VarietyDerek ElleyVarietyDerek ElleyHas almost zero plot but molto mood. It will appeal to the most faithful of the director's camp-followers and no one else.