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Waiting for the Barbarians

2019

Ciro Guerra

Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Harry Melling ...

5.7

440

Drama A magistrate in colonial town clashes with a colonel who is intent on capturing local indigenous people.

	Author	Review
United States	Guy Lodge Variety	"Coetzee's brilliant 1980 novel of colonial breakdown is a tough prospect to film; he and Colombian auteur Ciro Guerra make an uneven but eventually stirring stab at it"	NEU
United Kingdom	Harry Windsor The Guardian	"[A] stately, horrific drama (...) It’s easy to read the film as a not particularly subtle metaphor for fascism (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Ben Croll IndieWire	"A film that puts on its best clothes, assumes its most sober voice, and then stands tall to tell us: Imperialism Is Bad. The message is not wrong, but it certainly is a disappointing use of Guerra’s talent"	NEG
United States	Boyd van Hoeij The Hollywood Reporter	"A beautifully, if austerely, staged parable (...) The lack of cultural specifics combined with the fact that the characters are archetypes finally leaves 'Waiting for the Barbarians' somewhat stranded"	NEU
United Kingdom	Jonathan Romney Screendaily	"Mark Rylance shines in this otherwise bloated adaptation (...) this film version has none of the parable-like resonance of Coetzee’s sparely poetic, politically charged creation"	NEG
United States	Glenn Kenny The New York Times	"Guerra aestheticizes everything to an extreme"	NEG
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Not even a name-heavy cast and an award-winning Colombian director can prop up this adaptation (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Nick Allen rogerebert.com	"You can admire what the movie and Rylance alike are doing, but the film continues to ring false (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU

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