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A Hero

100 Movies of 2021

Ghahreman

2021

Asghar Farhadi

Amir Jadidi, Abolfazl Ebrahimi, Fereshteh Sadrorafaei, Nader Shahsavari ...

7.0

3,829

Drama. Thriller Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor (Mohsen Tanabandeh) to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don't go as planned.

	Author	Review
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"The simplest film that Farhadi has made since his international breakthrough 10 years ago has somehow become the most ambivalent, and also the best"	POS
United States	Deborah Young The Hollywood Reporter	"A very fine film about honesty, honor and the price of freedom (...) Interestingly for an Iranian film, the power of social media plays a huge role in the hero’s unraveling"	POS
United Kingdom	Lee Marshall Screendaily	"A truly compelling drama anchored by the remarkable central performance of Amir Jadidi (...) A Hero gains much of its resonance from being exposed to the stress-test of urban Shiraz"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Farhadi’s realist tale is just too messy and unsatisfactory (...) A Hero is a film that works because of a clever and subtle performance from Amir Jadidi (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Jason Solomons The Wrap	"Shot with precision, written with elegance and unfolding at a thriller-like pace (...) Farhadi is on far firmer ground here than with his last Cannes entry"	POS
United States	Anna Smith Deadline	"As it takes more and more twists, the story veers on the edge of Shakespearean tragicomedy, with darkly funny results (...) The narrative is at its most engaging in the first two acts"·	POS
United Kingdom	Dave Calhoun Time Out	"Clear-eyed, precise and thrilling work (...) It’s a superb morality play that immerses us deeply in a society’s values and rituals and keeps us guessing right to its powerful final shot (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Its structure is repetitive more than it is developmental (...) 'A Hero' for all that’s good in it, is a Farhadi movie that speaks to our heads more than it does our hearts."	NEU
United States	Ben Kenigsberg rogerebert.com	"There's a true elegance to the way he leads the viewer through a maze of moral complexities and comes out the other side, just at a point when there seems to be no exit"	POS
United States	A.A. Dowd AV Club	"Thrillingly complex (...) He once again nestles deeper themes within the cracks of his carefully developed dramatic situation, never allowing any agenda to didactically eclipse the relatable conflicts between his characters"	POS
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"The title of 'A Hero', Asghar Farhadi's characteristically complex, humane and absorbing new movie, at first cries out to be read ironically (...) Perhaps [it] isn't so ironic after all"	POS
United States	Bilge Ebiri Vulture	"As demonstration of Farhadi's impressive ability to build suspense out of everyday interactions, [it]'s well worth seeing. But [his] generosity of spirit that was so pivotal to his earlier work seems to be in retreat [here]"	NEU
United States	Anthony Lane The New Yorker	"Farhadi patiently cranks up the moral suspense until we can barely breathe"	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"[Its] beauty often comes through the small observational moments —intimate, naturalistic scenes of domesticity and the everyday grind of a working society— that Farhadi polishes like stones, his camera unobtrusive but all-seeing"	POS
United Kingdom	Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard	"Asghar Farhadi's new offering is a blistering, if gentle, triumph (...) If you enjoy tender riddles, there's no better way to kick off 2022 (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"'A Hero' runs a bit long and is at times frustratingly ambiguous, but Farhadi has delivered another insightful slice of life and Amir Jadidi turns in a remarkably intriguing performance (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"An intricate story filled with many threads that appear to be hanging loosely. But if we start pulling at those threads, we'd find they would all twist and tangle together, resulting in something far more complex"	POS
United States	Caroline Tsai The Playlist	"'A Hero' delivers a nuanced examination of justice —and the many shades of injustice that surround it"	POS
United States	Pat Brown Slant	"A demonstrative examination of the way our raising of heroes onto social media pedestals diminishes the messy, sometimes impenetrable truth of human lives (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Rory O'Connor The Film Stage	"'A Hero' is perhaps a touch too sinuous and convoluted to be considered alongside his great early works, but it plays to his strengths and sensibilities —a clear return to form"	NEU
Canada	Peter Martin Screen Anarchy	"Another tightly-written, expertly-crafted, highly-dramatic character study (...) Rahim steadily becomes far deeper and contradictory a character than I had assumed him to be"	POS
Ireland	Tara Brady Irish Times	"In common with the director's most-admired films, this new film seamlessly marries genre kicks and social injustice (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
	Kaleem Aftab Cineuropa	"Farhadi shows that laughter can be the best medicine, and that [he has a] remarkable ability to build a story and take it in unexpected directions"	POS

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