Samsara (2012) played in key cities to good reviews that at the same time were mixed. • Colin Covert wrote in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "...examines our planet with the detached curiosity of an extraterrestrial sightseer... hypnotic, transcendental..." • And John Anderson wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "...a purely sensory journey until the pictures start making editorial comments..." More Reviews Below...
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD(cg) "...literally hypnotic.... 'Samsara' stares at Asian temples, African tribesmen, and chickens bound for slaughter with the same blank eye."(See all of Lisa Schwarzbaum's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 75 words, 09/07/12
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: OUTSTANDING(cg) "If you see it as a trance movie, a meditation, a head trip or whatever, it may cause you to become more thankful for what we have here. It is a rather noble film."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 503 words, 09/07/12
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (12 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "A spool of arresting, beautifully composed shots without narration or dialogue... an invitation to watch closely and to suspend interpretation..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 676 words, 08/24/12
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Tired of the same old action movies? Maybe it's time for something different. Like, really different.... Oddly, there isn't as much originality as you'd expect..."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 159 words, 08/24/12
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...as frustrating as it is beautiful.... The makers of 'Samsara' want to free our minds, but their technique makes us their prisoners more often than not."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 689 words, 08/31/12
Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "The drawbacks to this often rhapsodically beautiful film lie not in the journey itself, but in the preachy detours taken along the way."(See all of Farran Smith Nehme's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 221 words, 08/24/12
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "I don't know if it's a movie to rattle around in your brain or your soul.... 'Samsara' is gorgeous... sometimes, depending on expectations, looks are enough."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 461 words, 09/07/12
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: MODERATE(cg) " 'Samsara' looks fantastic, and its Eastern exoticism may give it the appearance of philosophical depth. Its message, though, is pretty simple: That's life!"(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 302 words, 09/14/12
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "If you see it as a trance movie, a meditation, a head trip or whatever, it may cause you to become more thankful for what we have here. It is a rather noble film."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 503 words, 09/07/12
Mark Holcomb, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...a visual panache that short-circuits the need for narrative discipline.... the film's imagery is epic and trance-inducing. It's the 'guided' part where 'Samsara' stumbles."(See all of Mark Holcomb's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 214 words, 08/22/12
Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star: VERY GOOD(cg) "...arresting visuals and the ideas they evoke give us pause and cause us to rethink the world in ways both instinctual and rational... rewarding..."(See all of Bruce DeMara's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 503 words, 10/05/12
Adam Nayman, Toronto Globe & Mail: WEAK(cg) "...piles on so many pointed tableaux of a technologically routinized society that it begins to resemble an inexorable machine itself - and this is not a compliment."(See all of Adam Nayman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 501 words, 10/05/12
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "I can't fault Ron Fricke for making the movies he wants to make. The problem is, they're all the same movie.... It's lovely to look at..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 219 words, 10/04/12
KEY CITIES (9 Reviews)
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: MODERATE(cg) "Twenty years ago, 'Samsara' would have been a knockout. In fact, it was. Only then it was called 'Baraka'.... Both of Ron Fricke's features descend from 'Koyaanisqatsi'..."(See all of Mark Jenkins's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 440 words, 09/14/12
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...examines our planet with the detached curiosity of an extraterrestrial sightseer... hypnotic, transcendental..."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 145 words, 09/07/12
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: WEAK(cg) "The whole thing blurs into a mushy sameness, which isn't helped by a gauzy, New Age score that sounds like something you hear when you visit a massage therapist."(See all of Randy Cordova's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 295 words, 09/14/12
Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: WEAK(cg) "As if to compensate for the absence of speech, there's a lot of music and ambient noise on the soundtrack. The result is like an issue of National Geographic gone mad."(See all of Mark Feeney's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 561 words, 09/07/12
Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...it's hard to escape the feeling that this is spiritualism lite, and laid on thick.... Fricke has called the film a 'guided meditation'... I'd have preferred a good deal less guidance."(See all of Walter Addiego's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 354 words, 09/07/12
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...floats by, its pictures piling up like turned pages in a magazine... Visually, it's often remarkable -- even if, like those multicolored sands, it too quickly slips away."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 293 words, 08/24/12
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: EXCELLENT(cg) "...sumptuous... a thoughtful and profoundly gorgeous film... it's one of the most immersive things the screen has shown us in years."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 138 words, 09/07/12
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: OUTSTANDING(cg) "This unspeakably gorgeous travelogue was shot on 70mm film in 25 countries over five years. In the non-denominational church of the senses, it's a holy document."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 339 words, 09/07/12
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: VERY GOOD(cg) "Achingly beautiful and visually transfixing... offers a transporting vacation from the usual multiplex fare. It's a movie to get lost in."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 464 words, 09/21/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (6 Reviews)
Mark Holcomb, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...a visual panache that short-circuits the need for narrative discipline.... the film's imagery is epic and trance-inducing. It's the 'guided' part where 'Samsara' stumbles."(See all of Mark Holcomb's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 214 words, 08/22/12
Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix: WEAK(cg) "...ponderous and pointless... beautiful in a slick, impersonal, National Geographic kind of way, and the accompanying music (there is no voice-over) is New Age pap..."(See all of Gerald Peary's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 122 words, 09/06/12
Alison Willmore, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "...frequently cheesy in its juxtapositions and mild exoticism, but it's awe-inspiring in equal measure.... there's something stubbornly endearing... it soaks into the pores."(See all of Alison Willmore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 384 words, 08/23/12
Budd Wilkins, Slant: VERY GOOD(cg) "...sumptuous.... Ron Fricke wants these images to stand for the film as a whole: a brightly hued bauble, fit for rapturous contemplation."(See all of Budd Wilkins's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 543 words, 08/21/12
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "I can't fault Ron Fricke for making the movies he wants to make. The problem is, they're all the same movie.... It's lovely to look at..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 219 words, 10/04/12
HIGHBROW PRESS (4 Reviews)
John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a survey of the physical world in terms of architecture and aesthetics... It's a purely sensory journey until the pictures start making editorial comments..."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 233 words, 08/31/12
A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "A spool of arresting, beautifully composed shots without narration or dialogue... an invitation to watch closely and to suspend interpretation..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 676 words, 08/24/12
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...as frustrating as it is beautiful.... The makers of 'Samsara' want to free our minds, but their technique makes us their prisoners more often than not."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 689 words, 08/31/12
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: OUTSTANDING "It's a grand artistic gesture and a communal experience, of a sort that's becoming rare or even impossible to create, and whatever its flaws may be, we're lucky to have it."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,013 words, 08/23/12
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Robert Koehler, Daily Variety: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a picture postcard... any thematic patterns seem obscure at best, in what more closely parallels the effect of paging through a gigantic fine-arts coffee-table book."(See all of Robert Koehler's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 450 words, 09/12/11
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...entirely too preachy... While the film's grandiloquence might grate, its technical achievements are considerable, as no doubt were the logistical challenges..."(See all of David Rooney's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 654 words, 09/14/11
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: MODERATE "...as frustrating as it is beautiful.... The makers of 'Samsara' want to free our minds, but their technique makes us their prisoners more often than not."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 689 words, 08/31/12
A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "A spool of arresting, beautifully composed shots without narration or dialogue... an invitation to watch closely and to suspend interpretation..."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 676 words, 08/24/12
John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a survey of the physical world in terms of architecture and aesthetics... It's a purely sensory journey until the pictures start making editorial comments..."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 233 words, 08/31/12
21.2 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Samsara (2012)'s reviews are separated by an average 21.2 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Samsara (2012) (29 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Samsara (2012)'s reviews cover 35.9% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 11,165 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 385 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 29.9 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Samsara (2012)'s reviews on average broke 29.9 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Samsara (2012)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Samsara (2012) (29 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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