69
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonSaleem, a Paris-based Kurd, displays the visual confidence and subtle screwball rhythms of a master, exploiting offscreen space, deadpan compositions, and deft visual backbeats, as well as attaining a breathtaking fidelity to real light and landscape.
- 88New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoIraqi-Kurdish director-writer Hiner Saleem is in no hurry to tell the story, and viewers drawn in by the warm-hearted tale and charmingly eccentric characters will be in no hurry for the closing credits.
- 80The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe thicket of relationships that the director, Hiner Saleem, has created and weaves his cast and camera through is so invitingly hotblooded and crowded with hilariously melodramatic incident that the snowbanks are not nearly as forbidding as they initially seem.
- 80VarietyDavid StrattonVarietyDavid StrattonA little gem that takes a potentially grim subject and mines it for maximum humor and insight.
- 70The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannAs the picture winds on, the feeling grows that Saleem, who clearly knows these people, wants to show that their mode of life in this stark setting has, in a gentle way, a touch of the ridiculous.
- 63New York Daily NewsNew York Daily NewsSaleem makes clever use of imagery, with the beautiful, snow-filled vistas representing his characters' personal and social isolation. But "Vodka" moves about as fast as the distant ice caps melt.
- 50Film ThreatPhil HallFilm ThreatPhil HallThe film's leisurely pacing is often too slow for its own good, and many scenes meander endlessly with no true payoff.
- 50Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittDiverting but minor.
- 50L.A. WeeklyDavid ChuteL.A. WeeklyDavid ChuteExceedingly dry and precise and slow-paced comedy.