Tsotsi Critic Reviews
Metascore®:
Based upon 14 Critic ReviewsHighest Rated
- |
- Publications (A-Z)
- |
- Critics (A-Z)
- |
- Favorite Critics
What a simple and yet profound story this is.Read the full review
It grabs you from a symbolic opening scene of gang members rolling the dice -- the odds, it soon becomes clear, are stacked against them getting lucky -- and never lets go.Read the full review
Brutal but believable, the film in some ways harks back to early Hollywood, when Jimmy Cagney or Richard Widmark played callow villains out of their depth in everyday life.Read the full review
As Tsotsi, Chweneyagae turns his face into a living battle mask -- curved, molded and sandpapered into smooth ruthlessness. But as the story unfolds, Tsotsi's mask begins to crack, and his humanity begins to flow through.Read the full review
It's a solid, earnest drama of moral redemption that places old cliches in an unfamiliar setting.Read the full review
Though the story teeters on easy sentimentality, it doesn't succumb. Though unabashedly emotional, it isn't maudlin. Tsotsi's story feels believable. It is made all the more engaging by a wonderful soundtrack of African Kwaito music.Read the full review
Based on a play by Athol Fugard, Tsotsi is South Africa's entry in this year's Oscar race for Best Foreign-Language Film. This remarkable movie means to shake you, and boy does it ever.Read the full review
When a director can take a reprehensible monster and, over the course of a scant 90 minutes, turn audience reaction from distaste to sympathy, that's the mark of an adept filmmaker. This occurs in Tsotsi.Read the full review
Whatever its weaknesses, Tsotsi is redeemed by its excellent performances.Read the full review
To his credit, Mr. Hood's meditation on truth and reconciliation doesn't traffic in the cheap thrills of art-house exploitation, like "City of God"; he wrings tears with sincerity, not cynicism.Read the full review
