Loong Boonmee raleuk chat 2010

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Instead of nostalgia for vanished magic, there is the recognition that magic is always present if we know where and how to look. Mr. Weerasethakul certainly knows where to look and is generous enough to share some of what he sees. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: What you see and hear always seems perfectly natural, even if you can't exactly say why. Who needs words when you have cinema? Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Uncle Boonmee is entrancing-and also, if you're not sufficiently steeped in its rhythms, narcotizing. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A special taste, dreamlike and sometimes opaque, or at least translucent, to logical analysis. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Weerasethakul's sincerity is evident, though the film's meditative pace and vague philosophical undertones will not be for everyone. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: A moving, gently reassuring tale that softens the boundaries between humanity and nature, life and the afterlife. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: What would pass for longueurs in another director's movie become commands for rumination here. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: As is to be expected, Weerasethakul frequently abandons the story for trancelike contemplations of nature, but never before in his work has the device felt more purposeful. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is a film that wants to be interesting, and it certainly is that. Whether you want to dine with the ghost and the monkey-man or not, they bring a new perspective to the table. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Spirit, animal, and human worlds coexist in dreamy harmony in this remarkable drama, winner of the 2010 Cannes Palme d'Or. Read more

Maggie Lee, Hollywood Reporter: It playfully invokes both the lifestyle and animistic beliefs of the Northeast country folk, and the primitive magic of early Thai cinema, relating both of these to his musings on reincarnation. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" is a one-of-a-kind mixture of the extraordinary and the everyday. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The slightly muzzy, blended photography is often beautiful, and an aura of the uncanny-the spirit life entering the everyday-is strangely affecting. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: It takes a while to get used to Joe's peculiar style of filmmaking, but once you do, you'll go with the flow, not worrying about the abstractness of the plot. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A beautiful, slow-moving meditation on life, death, and relationships that transcend time and space. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If you are open, even in fancy, to the idea of ghosts who visit the living, this film is likely to be a curious but rather bemusing experience. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Takes a sweet, long time to work its magic on you. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: If you can weather some slow patches (and there are plenty), this boldly original, oddly affecting meditation on the afterlife will reward you with moments of profundity that will linger in your consciousness (or subconsciousness) for a lifetime... Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Uncle Boonmee is a delightfully original, if not entirely explicable, story of a dying Buddhist man's journey into the jungle. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Apichatpong doesn't use his camera to stress what we should be looking at, thinking or hearing. He uses long takes and subtle edits to generate moods, atmospheres and feelings. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: While the result is pretty much the definition of a film that should be experienced, not explained, there's no sense here that Weerasethakul is being difficult for difficult's sake, or even attempting to conceal his mysteries. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: A slow-burning cinematic riddle that worms its dreamy abstractions through the likes of melodrama, comedy, horror, fable, and documentary, [the film] is a free-spirited, hypnotic masterpiece-and that's not a word to be thrown around lightly. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A work of unostentatious beauty and uncloying sweetness, at once sophisticated and artless, mysterious and matter-of-fact, cosmic and humble. Read more