84
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawGraduation is an intricate, deeply intelligent film, and a bleak picture of a state of national depression in Romania, where the 90s generation hoped they would have a chance to start again. There are superb performances from Titien and Dragus.
- 100Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounIt’s not a despairing movie – Mungiu even suggests that a new generation might put things right – but it’s a brutally honest one.
- 91The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangAn excoriating, gripping, intricately plotted morality play, Mungiu’s film is less linear, more circular or spiral-shaped than his previous Cannes titles...but it is no less rigorous and possibly even more eviscerating and critical of Romanian society, because it offers its critique across such a broad canvas.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinGraduation isn’t one of Mungiu’s finest, but even a restrained, emotionally measured work like this is more interesting and provocative than many another director’s best effort.
- 80EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonWith the camera placement being as meticulous as the use of Handel on the soundtrack, this impeccably played saga deservedly earned Mungiu a share of the Best Director prize at Cannes.
- 75The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaThe Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaIt’s a moving portrait, but it’s also a very familiar and transparently constructed one, preventing the narrative from generating the urgency necessary to endow its moral implications with genuine vigor.
- 75Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSlant MagazineKenji FujishimaCristian Mungiu's film is more than just a cry of despair toward the hopelessness of life in modern-day Romania.
- 70VarietyJay WeissbergVarietyJay WeissbergAs expected from a master like Mungiu, everything is beautifully structured and utterly credible, yet Graduation feels like a retread.