Past Lives

critic Reviews

, 95% Certified Fresh Tomatometer Score
  • A remarkable debut for writer-director Celine Song, Past Lives uses the bonds between its sensitively sketched central characters to support trenchant observations on the human condition.
  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Jae-Ha KimSalon.com
    In this extraordinary Academy Award-nominated film “Past Lives,” the Korean concept of inyeon is used to lead viewers into believing that Nora and Hae-sung are destined to be together – if not in this lifetime, then in the future.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    A.A. DowdIGN Movies
    Never risking discomfort, Song flattens a real-life anecdote of any truly messy feelings, resulting in a tone poem quasi-romance that’s actually serene to a fault. It’s a good movie too chronically polite to achieve anything like greatness.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Dwight BrownDwightBrownInk.com
    What a touching story. A very striking way to look at relationships and the ways that love lingers.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Jonathan RomneyFinancial Times
    Past Lives may be a weepie, but it’s a hyper-sophisticated one.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Mark KermodeObserver (UK)
    Plaudits to the principal cast, who do a miraculous job of portraying inner conflict and ecstasy with the merest tilt of a head, or subtle shift of a shoulder.
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Charlotte O'SullivanLondon Evening Standard
    Song finds the political in the personal and avoids seeming indulgent or niche.
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  • , Rotten Tomatometer Score
    A.S. Hamrahn+1
    The film is more literature than cinema, elevated mumblecore for graduate writing seminars, the opposite of, for instance, Hong Sangsoo, who makes low-budget films about writers and filmmakers without worrying about prizes...
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Marcelo StiletanoLa Nación (Argentina)
    Lee concentrates and expresses Nora's state of mind through a marvelous performance in which two feelings that initially seem impossible to transmit simultaneously come together... [Full review in Spanish]
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  • , Fresh Tomatometer Score
    Dave GianniniInSession Film
    Past Lives is a treasure and will continue to be for many years.
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  • , Rotten Tomatometer Score
    Hugo Hernández ValdiviaCinexcepción
    It is a film that is more pretty than profound, it is a film that seeks to present a demonstration based upon speculation: what would have happened if the kids did not separate? [Full review in Spanish]
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