81
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The PlaylistOliver LytteltonThe PlaylistOliver LytteltonOne of the best films of the year.
- 90Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlA simple, solid, deeply affecting film.
- 90The DissolveAndrew LapinThe DissolveAndrew LapinWadjda is an object of stark beauty, an oasis of free-spirited cinema emerging from the desert.
- 80The GuardianXan BrooksThe GuardianXan BrooksYou'd need a heart of stone not to be won over by Wadjda, a rebel yell with a spoonful of sugar and a pungent sense of a Riyadh society split between the home, the madrasa and the shopping mall.
- 80The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinModest as it may look, this is boundary-pushing cinema in all the best ways, and what a thrill it is to hear those boundaries creak.
- 80EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonAs simple and charming as you could wish for, this is a genuinely pioneering debut from a female Saudi filmmaker and a striking piece of work by any standards.
- 80Total FilmTotal FilmAl-Mansour carefully dodges easy uplift, but her message of hope to future generations of Saudi women is clear.
- 80Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichAn Arabic-German coproduction, it is a rare movie shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, which has no cinema industry to speak of, and the first feature by a female filmmaker from that country. Forbidden from mixing with the men in her crew, Al-Mansour often directed via walkie-talkie from the back of a van.
- This resonant film, detailing struggles in a far-flung place, represents world cinema in the classic sense.
- 50Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundSlant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundIt doesn't play like reality, but like boilerplate filmic fantasy, and its novel setting and inception struggles seem positioned as a beard--or veil, if you will--to mask its mediocrity.