57
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe writer-director, Andrew Bujalski, zeros in on the delicate dances and negotiations between the people in these two-handers, which percolate with sly humor, decency, curiosity and sheer nerve.
- 75Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganPaste MagazineNatalia KeoganAndrew Bujalski, the filmmaker behind “mumblecore” touchstone Funny Ha Ha and tender workplace comedy Support the Girls, tackles unexpectedly embittered subject matter alongside unique pandemic challenges with There There.
- 70Screen RantAlexander HarrisonScreen RantAlexander HarrisonThere is a modest feeling to There There, and the emotional impact of its actual content might display the limits of this extreme methodology, but its (smartly brisk) runtime is hardly too steep a price to see a small movie explore such big questions with such clarity.
- 67IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIf the faintly amusing final product is pretty thin gruel when compared to the rest of its filmmaker’s output, the project’s high-concept construction is clever enough to sustain the meandering story it tells.
- 67Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAustin ChronicleJosh KupeckiThere There skews its world ever so slightly, arriving at some nicely off-kilter insights amid its non sequiturs, but for all its neat tricks, function is definitely following form here.
- 63Slant MagazineChris BarsantiSlant MagazineChris BarsantiThe artifice of There There certainly generates an added layer of frisson that might not have been there were the film shot under more conventional circumstances. But the root material has enough rich humanity and taut conflict to it that the result would have succeeded regardless.
- 50TheWrapMartin TsaiTheWrapMartin TsaiExperimentalism isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but the form, content, visuals, and motifs of There There aren’t inspired or interesting enough to warrant serious mental engagement.
- 50RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyRogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyThere There doesn't come to life, even as an intellectual or artistic exercise.
- 42The PlaylistJason BaileyThe PlaylistJason BaileyThe longer There There goes, the more it meanders and never into the realm of anything particularly funny or compelling. Instead, it plays mostly like a series of exercises – in writing, acting, and covid-era production. It feels like a movie Bujalski made to make a movie. Which is fine for him but doesn’t offer much to the rest of us.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThis far into the pandemic, with most Americans choosing to act as if it no longer exists, there may simply be no audience left for a gimmicky experimental narrative about people failing so completely to connect with those around them.