Blue Jasmine 2013

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Allen observes Jasmine's allure and disease without penetrating her soul. That makes for a movie that is both intimate and disinterested, as if Jasmine were a flailing insect in a barren terrarium. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: [A] moving, sometimes funny film ... Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [Allen's] new drama Blue Jasmine comes this close to being a wheeze. But he sells it beautifully. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I do not consider Jasmine a typical Woody Allen comedy. It's better than anything you might imagine. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie's observations about economic disparity are cloaked in zestful comedy that's broad or stiletto-sharp. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A wrenching portrait of a woman whose life has fallen apart. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A meaty, fully realized drama that cleverly functions as both an update of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a satire on One Percent excess. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: There's something admirably perverse about a movie that casts Andrew Dice Clay as the most upstanding character on screen. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It isn't always easy to watch. It isn't exactly fun (although parts are funny). Blanchett's performance sometimes overpowers the story. But it's an essential work in Allen's later canon. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Is ''Blue Jasmine'' an Occupy Wall Street-era morality tale, or just a deeply absorbing character study? Either way, Allen has given us a whole lot to chew on - and a flawed heroine we'll remember for a long time. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Despite some thin writing, it's Allen's weightiest work in years. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This also benefits from one of the strongest casts he's assembled in years: Cate Blanchett is exceptional in the lead, and there are strong supporting turns from Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, and (in a surprise dramatic turn) Andrew Dice Clay. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Plenty of fine actresses have delighted in Allen's snappish comic rhythms, which the writer never really loses, even in drama. Or in drama borrowed from Tennessee Williams. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Why should we care about Jasmine? For me, the best reason was Blanchett's all-out performance, which is often frighteningly vivid. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Blanchett excels at every turn, from the haughty airs and headstrong sense of entitlement to the fragile and inevitable disintegration that made the hair on my arms stand up. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Jasmine resembles one of those '50s wives -- widowed or dumped -- who find themselves with nary a skill to survive, or at least not in the manner they'd grown accustomed. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: As Jasmine's story is revealed, and as Blanchett manages the fragile mask of her character's sanity, the film builds to a mighty emotional pitch. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: There's something cathartic about a contemporary film that's willing to explore madness as an expression of who a person really is. Read more

David Ehrlich, Film.com: "Woody Allen's best film since 1994's 'Bullets Over Broadway.'" Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: [A]... thing of wonder. What you're looking for with [Allen] are signs of life, as opposed to shtick and koans... You want to see that the finery of character writing still means something to him. This is his 43rd movie, and it's inspired. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Cate Blanchett is neurotically golden in another memorable female character study from Woody Allen. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: For all of "Blue Jasmine's" darkness, the movie is among the filmmaker's most emotionally affecting. Read more

Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News: Allen's best movie in some years and certainly his finest drama with comedy since 2005's "Match Point," it is a tale of wealth, greed and corruption -- and the shock waves that occur when crimes lead to punishment. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Just when it seemed like Allen was going to settle for cranking out a comic bauble every year for the rest of his career, he comes up with a vital and vibrant knockout of a movie. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Allen's story of a fictitious Ruth Madoff figure works as both a what-if comedy and a penetrating psychological portrait. Major credit goes to Blanchett, raw and funny and astounding as ever. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: In all, this is the strongest, most resonant movie Woody Allen has made in years. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's a movie of quiet moments (and one startling revelation). But it is a dramatic slice of life, and it lives fully in a darkness Allen's only occasionally kept at bay. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The plotting is wooden, the flashbacks lazy, the adoption device a bad joke, and as always, everyone stammers like Woody. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The way [Blanchett] anchors this superb dramedy is a thing of beauty. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Somewhat less than the sum of its parts, Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine'' showcases a brilliant, Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett as sort of a WASP version of Ruth Madoff. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Blue Jasmine ranks with Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris at the top of Woody Allen's recent movies. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Blanchett is steady as she goes, delivering one of the most exhilarating performances of the year. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's narratively uneven but the occasional lapses of focus are rescued by Cate Blanchett's riveting lead performance. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is one strange, sometimes uneven but mostly mesmerizing film. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Want to see great acting, from comic to tragic and every electrifying stop in between? See Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A freak show whose alternately compelling and repulsive heroine can't disguise the fact that it's a movie by a sour old guy who no longer likes anything or anyone and who also, more damningly, just isn't interested. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine" is beyond brilliant, beyond analysis. This is jaw-dropping work, what we go to the movies hoping to see, and we do. Every few years. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Blanchett's lavish, almost operatic turn as Jasmine sloshes against the sides of this insubstantial movie like liquid in a too-small container (maybe the room-temperature Stoli Jasmine is continually downing). Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Lives constructed on pretense can only stand for so long. Watching them collapse is appalling but undeniably entertaining. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: There's never been a better director of women than Woody Allen. Actresses in his films have earned five Oscars from 11 nominations. Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine" should make it an even dozen. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Allen is a famously hands-off director, and while this method succeeds on occasion, too many scenes in Blue Jasmine betray a directorial negligence. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: A sharply observed, post-economic crash comedy-drama that boasts a formidable performance by Cate Blanchett and addresses such pertinent real-world concerns as class, gender and corporate criminality in urban America. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: It holds its own thanks to Blanchett's stunning take on Jasmine, whose incandescent and ongoing meltdowns are mesmerizing to behold. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: You have to dig deep in Allen's back catalogue to find a single performance as affecting and well-judged as the one Cate Blanchett delivers. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The essence of Blue Jasmine feels timely, even years into America's limp rebound from recession: How do we start over, when guilt can't be fully processed and sacrifice is demeaned? Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: Sooner or later a major film-maker has to give us someone we will never forget. Jasmine is that someone. Read more

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun: There is all this talent -- and so little reason for it in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: [Blanchett's] bravura performance is tinged with haughtiness, dry humor and madness. It's one of the year's finest, most complex portrayals, in one of Allen's best films in years. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Only Andrew Dice Clay, in a small role as Ginger's Low-Class(TM) onetime husband, pierces the movie's highly polished bubble world; he comes off as a person whose veins run with blood rather than some liquefied director's conceit. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Blanchett owns this movie as thoroughly as her character owns her delusions. Read more