71
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Paste MagazineTim GriersonPaste MagazineTim GriersonThe documentary’s so simple it feels profound without ever really trying.
- Emmanuel Gras’ film may be a doc, but with its luscious compositions and heart-rending score it plays like some post-apocalyptic Malick movie: thick dust storms, whispered prayers and an aching empathy for people scraping a living amid utter deprivation.
- 75Slant MagazineDerek SmithSlant MagazineDerek SmithEmmanuel Gras resists pitying or sentimentalizing his main subject, or exalting him merely for his resilience in the face of such a harsh, uncaring reality.
- 70Screen DailySarah WardScreen DailySarah WardMakala takes the observational approach to the hardships of Congolese life, charting a tough but insightful journey.
- 67IndieWireMichael NordineIndieWireMichael NordineThere’s a fine line between watching someone toil and feeling as though you’re toiling yourself, of course, and “Makala” doesn’t always land on the right side of it. It can be edifying at times to watch this, as the film is clearly a labor of love — even if the actual work depicted is not.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe film was shot chronologically and this is clear in the increasing fluidity of Gras’ camerawork, which is less and less searching the closer they get to the city.
- 60The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergTo ponder the colonial implications of a French director exoticizing a Congolese man whose family eats rats for meals is to realize that a movie can be heartwarming and heartless at once.
- 60The Observer (UK)Simran HansThe Observer (UK)Simran HansThis immersive, slow-burning documentary about a Congolese charcoal maker finds poetry in the punishing, monotonous graft of one man’s trade.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt is a sad and lonely world, sympathetically captured, beautifully photographed.