Set Fire to the Stars 2014

Sara Stewart, New York Post: To me, the Great Men Who Wrote Epic Poetry But Were Otherwise Intolerable trope leaves much to be desired. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A harrowing but tedious chronicle of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' time in America in the 1950s. Read more

Guy Lodge, Variety: Its appreciation of Thomas' work remains superficial, while the polished filmmaking never quite finds its own poetry. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: It's left with little to do except point out that difficult artists can be hard on the people around them and to showcase some good poetry being read poorly. Read more

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly: The film wallows too much in its subject's glumness, but it comes alive whenever TV actor and co-writer Celyn Jones, whose only previous film credit is 2005's Lassie, plays Thomas as a big shaggy dog. Read more

Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter: A steady, austere treatment of a notoriously and riotously rambunctious subject, Set Fire to the Stars takes a non-incendiary, safe-hands approach to potentially combustible material. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Gorgeous, evocative and well performed ... Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Stylistically assured and tastefully appointed. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: [A] watchable but thematically repetitive drama about Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' arrival in America in 1950. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: "Set Fire to the Stars" barely skims the surface of characters you wish had been given more dimension, but as a snapshot of postwar academia and its pretensions, it exerts a creepy fascination. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A haunting account of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' first tour of America in 1950, "Set Fire to the Stars" is at once curiously subdued and unnervingly unpredictable. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: This ambitious low-budget Welsh drama never quite finds a way to make its emotional drama matter much to the audience. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: From the get-go, Set Fire feels movieland-hokey, and more dumb than the people in it ... Read more