Critic Reviews

• Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

  Arriving more than a few years after author Robert Bly popularized the concept of male self-exploration, this Canadian documentary seems a bit too touchy-feely even for the age of Oprah.

• Ronnie Scheib, Variety

  The tribe's unfailing politeness outside of activities specifically designed to arouse testosterone underlines the suspiciously benign nature of the entire endeavor.

• Dana Stevens, New York Times

  Though it generates its share of unintentional giggles, François Kohler's documentary manages to take us to a seldom-visited place: the hidden corners of the straight male mind.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Desert Wind will be of interest to men -- and especially to women, who might learn much they didn't know about the opposite sex.

• Jan Stuart, Newsday

  We sense that the balance of the film's observations is being skewed by the camera's preference for the emotional exhibitionists in the bunch.

• Joshua Land, Village Voice

  It's tough to connect with the almost context-free displays of emotion, and a century into the era of psychoanalysis, there's little about the men's assorted troubles with mothers and fathers, wives and girlfriends, that comes as a revelation.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  Here's what Kohler isn't telling us: The kind of men who'd sign up for a trip like this aren't exactly the kind who'd have trouble opening up, and the kind of men who could afford a trip like this aren't exactly 'regular guys.'

• Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

  In the end, unusual setting and all, 'Desert Wind' boils down to recorded group therapy, maybe necessary but awfully awkward to watch.

Read all 8 critic reviews