58
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallIt is both a passionate exposé of a serious injustice and a big emotional ride that is also prepared to take some interesting risks in its journey towards a old-school tear-jerker finale.
- 75The PlaylistIana MurrayThe PlaylistIana MurrayWhat Blue Bayou does wonderfully in these quiet moments is illustrate that being Asian is not a one-size-fits-all identity but a vast tapestry of different cultures.
- 75The Seattle TimesKatie WalshThe Seattle TimesKatie WalshAs Chon calibrates a wide variety of emotions, allowing space for all the agonies, ecstasies, repressions and excesses, he crafts a tale of intergenerational traumas and personal redemptions that is an emotionally complicated yet ultimately cathartic viewing experience.
- 70Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangArtfulness and restraint can be admirable qualities in a filmmaker, but rage and despair, when channeled with this much force and purpose, can be undeniably effective substitutes.
- 70SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiSlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiChon aims for the pulse at the end, but he may not have realized that he didn't have to try so hard — he had already effortlessly plucked at the heartstrings.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThere’s enormous heart behind Justin Chon’s drama, and wrenching performances full of feeling from the writer-director and his co-star Alicia Vikander. But those strengths don’t obscure the problems of an overdetermined screenplay, with too many plot points competing for focus and too many moments of strained melodrama.
- 58IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichJustin Chon’s overcranked but achingly heartfelt “Blue Bayou” is a case-study in how issue-driven melodramas are a double-edged sword.
- 58TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondThe melodrama can be effective at times, and there’s an admirable urgency with which it tackles significant issues in U.S. immigration policy.
- 38Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownThe film’s evocative imagery doesn’t compensate for the story being told with such a heavy hand that it dulls, rather than sharpens, Justin Chon’s urgent political message.