86
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearThe attention to visuals is above and beyond what most vérité is capable of; doing double duty as the film's cinematographer, Fan demonstrates a pitch-perfect photojournalistic eye.
- 100The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottMr. Fan's documentary is informed by a melancholy humanism, and finds unexpected beauty in almost unbearably harsh circumstances. It tells the story of a family caught, and possibly crushed, between the past and the future - a story that, on its own, is moving, even heartbreaking. Multiplied by 130 million, it becomes a terrifying and sobering panorama of the present.
- 100Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumThis is essential viewing for understanding our world.
- 85Frequently moving and quietly enlightening, Last Train Home is about love and exploitation, sacrifice and endurance.
- 83The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurraySometimes the story is so much like a fiction feature-complete with explosive family arguments and pointed cross-cutting between the free-spirited Qin and her beaten-down folks-that it feels exploitative, as though Lixin were turning real people into characters.
- 80Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosBoxoffice MagazineSteve RamosFan finds the delicate balance between broad socio-political themes and a single family torn between centuries-old traditions and the desire to succeed in the capitalist world.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James AdamsThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)James AdamsIt's an intense and tense time, unsurprisingly, and superbly realized by Lixin's unflinching yet compassionate eye, the Zhang family his microcosm for the Chinese macrocosm.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoA startling look at the devastating human cost of China's newfound embrace of capitalism.
- 70VarietyLeslie FelperinVarietyLeslie FelperinThe picture laudably adopts an intimate, personal approach to a subject -- hardworking Chinese garment workers -- that's been covered in more hectoring fashion elsewhere.
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanEverything is edged with desperation. However arduous Last Train Home may have been to shoot, it was infinitely more arduous to live.