81
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceCalum MarshVillage VoiceCalum MarshHowever you enjoy its nearly four hundred minutes, I expect you'll be held rapt till the last second by a film of abundant wit and generous heart.
- 100The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyWith a blend of local lore and partisan fury, theatrical artifice and journalistic inquiry, Gomes single-handedly reinvents the political cinema.
- 100CineVueBen NicholsonCineVueBen NicholsonThe individual tales meanings are obscured by wavering tone and formal gymnastics.
- 100The PlaylistOliver LytteltonThe PlaylistOliver LytteltonIt’s as successful as it is ambitious.
- 80Total FilmJamie GrahamTotal FilmJamie GrahamOne of the princes of arthouse cinema, Miguel Gomes here uses his status to push form and stretch boundaries. Very long but very much worth it.
- 75Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenMiguel Gomes's formal talents, which include a flair for close-ups of elegantly smooth or weathered faces, transcend his soft spot for the didactic.
- 75RogerEbert.comScout TafoyaRogerEbert.comScout TafoyaPart one of "Arabian Nights" has many wild components and even though they adhere to their own set of aesthetic principals, they make for a strange two-hour movie (which is why it’s best to watch it with parts two and three).
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorLabelling his film as a response to the impoverishment of ordinary people caused by the government-imposed austerity of 2013-14, Gomes explains his dilemma brilliantly at the start of Volume 1. How is a well-meaning filmmaker to effectively render the pain of the Portuguese with a documentary set in a town where the shipyard has closed just as alien wasps are attacking local beehives?
- 67The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFighting misery means having fun, which is what filmmaking is supposed to be, and, despite its lengths and scope, Arabian Nights always feels handmade.
- 60The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottMr. Gomes has a tendency to revel in his own cleverness and to indulge in self-conscious cinematic jokes. He also has a penchant for obscurantism, a habit of confusing ambiguity with depth.