89
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlThe film, a hard jewel of beauty and reportage, demands and rewards that second viewing.
- 91The PlaylistKatie WalshThe PlaylistKatie WalshIn Western, the filmmaking philosophy remains the same, but the subject is new and different, and the storytelling is deeper, nuanced, and honed by experience.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe film’s bracing ground-level truths, by turns hopeful and despairing, challenge Beltway anxieties about the “porousness” of the border and shake up preconceived notions about Americans’ relationships with their southern neighbors.
- 90Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonAs a dreamy yet concrete evocation of lives beset by unseen anxieties and dwindling resources, Western has a mythic quality in keeping with its totemic title.
- 90VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasA low-key but sharply observed work that benefits from real local flavor and a gift for lyric image making.
- 80The New York TimesDaniel M. GoldThe New York TimesDaniel M. GoldWith its evocative landscapes and its non-narrative, cinéma vérité style, Western is a layered, atmospheric chronicle of living traditions like bullfights and rodeos, mariachi bands and Texas two-steps. Yet the film also records the tremors of change.
- 75Slant MagazineChristopher GraySlant MagazineChristopher GrayAfter the film's early optimism and speculative midsection, Western struggles to manage all the rich dramatic irony of its final half hour, perched uneasily between plot and stasis.