83
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- The pacing is steady. The stories are told simply, with zero affectation or buildup by the director. The effect is astonishing.
- 90The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisIn effect, with I Wish I Knew, Jia is building not just a portrait of a city, but of a fragmented people — one story and memory at a time. He is finding meaning in collective remembrance and revealing a world, to borrow a phrase from Walter Benjamin, “under the gaze of the melancholy man.”
- 90Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleWhat ensues amidst Jia’s indelible, gliding visuals of modern Shanghai are ruminative testimonials from the breadth of an older citizenry — former soldiers, descendants of gangsters and politicians, and (lots of) artists who endured the city’s turbulent evolution, and who in their stories of family, love and survival form a tapestry of memory and wisdom.
- 83The A.V. ClubLawrence GarciaThe A.V. ClubLawrence GarciaEven in shortened form, I Wish I Knew can at times feel overly discursive. But its implications, particularly regarding the Cultural Revolution, are difficult to miss.
- 75RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyEven without access to all that it references, I Wish I Knew functions as an admirable cinematic tone poem about a place and its times.
- 70The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyWondrous yet rueful views of the city, with its blend of grandeur and squalor, are anchored by the wanderings of an actress, Zhao Tao, whose mysterious role is clarified by one of the most anguished of testimonies.
- The film is about the way we remember, from individuals looking back on the stories of life that their grandparents told them to the camera itself acting reflective of a time that’s destined to be finite.