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|
Tsotsi
Miramax Films
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for language and some strong violent content
Starring
Presley Chweneyagae,
Mothusi Magano,
Israel Makoe,
Percy Matsemela,
Jerry Mofokeng,
Benny Moshe,
Nambitha Mpumlwana,
and
Zenzo Ngqobe
Set amidst the bustling townships of Johannesburg and infused with the pumping high-energy Kwaito music of the top South African artist Zola, Tsotsi is an extraordinary portrait of the choies we make in life and the personal triumph that comes from choosing love over rage. (Miramax Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Crime
|
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Gavin Hood
Athol Fugard (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Gavin Hood
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: July 18, 2006
Theatrical: February 24, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
94 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / South Africa |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Zulu / Xhosa / Afrikaans |
Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (South Africa), 78th Annual Academy Awards; People's Choice Award, 2005 Toronto International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Powerful crime drama does more than just expose the criminal underbelly of South African township life.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
What a simple and yet profound story this is.

100
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
This powerful South African drama turns on the debut performance of young Presley Chweneyagae as the hood, and it's magnificent: a stone-faced killer in the opening scenes, he becomes an open book as the story progresses, as frightened, confused, and needy as the baby he drags around town in a shopping bag.

100
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
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.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
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.

80
Empire
Liz Beardsworth
Hood handles his material so deftly that a conclusion which could have been mawkish and sentimental is instead bittersweet, both painful and quietly affirming.

80
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Packs an unexpected emotional wallop. Gavin Hood's film tells a story of violence and redemption that's even more remarkable when you consider that neither of the lead performers had ever acted in a movie previously.

80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
An explosive wide-screen vision of the street life of Soweto, bursting with music, danger and vitality, and the extraordinary story of a ruthless young criminal known only as Tsotsi.

80
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Made with local talent by a South African director, Tsotsi is lifted above the current slew of movies portraying Africa as a helpless victim of its many problems, redeemable only by sympathetic white Westerners (as in John Boorman’s sermonizing 2004 drama "In My Country," and to a lesser degree "The Constant Gardener"), by its vigorously transcendent spirit of self-help.

80
Film Threat
Phil Hall
Tsotsi emerges as being among the finest films ever to come out of Africa. It is a brilliant, jolting and altogether powerful blast of energy and emotion.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
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.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
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.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
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.

75
Premiere
Kelly Borgeson
Hood's film, with its bold, beautiful cinematography and hard-thumping kwaito music, brings us into a different world, and then helps us to understand it.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The result is the kind of feel-bad/feel-good movie that brazenly manipulates our response and leaves us grateful for it -- so relentlessly dark is the premise that, by the end, we just need to believe in the prospect of light.

75
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
With a predictable and borderline manipulative plot, Tsotsi depends on strong performances for its impact, and its cast delivers.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
To enjoy it, you have to make a leap of faith wide enough to sail over a Grand Canyon of disbelief.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Aside from its South African setting and flavor, there isn't a lot in Tsotsi that differs from its legion of similar Hollywood counterparts. But the movie's heart, along with Hood's refusal to sugarcoat the grim reality, wins you over no matter how many times you've seen this story told.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Evocatively shot by cinematographer Lance Gewer in warm browns and reds that make Tsotsi seem all the more chilling, the film records his gradual metamorphosis from id-driven brute into empathic, if crude, care-giver.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
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.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Tense, fiercely optimistic movie.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
It's compelling material, even if you don't completely buy Tsotsi's transition.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It's a solid, earnest drama of moral redemption that places old cliches in an unfamiliar setting.

70
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
The cast is so good that a kind of counterpoint arises between the riskily lachrymose story and the firm verity of the acting.

70
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
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.

70
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Whatever its weaknesses, Tsotsi is redeemed by its excellent performances.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Presley Chweneyagae's Tsotsi makes his presence deeply felt. In a world of heedless children wielding guns, his tale is a heartening one.
70
Variety
Leslie Felperin
Powered by a pounding soundtrack of dance hall Kwaito music, the pic has vital, urban energy similar to the Brazilian crossover "City of God" but with a tauter, more conventional storyline.

50
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
A widescreen wallow in socially enforced slum nihilism brought to you by Miramax, Tsotsi could be pegged as "City of God" relocated to the Soweto shanties, but it eschews the ironic swagger and strobe-speed action of Fernando Meirelles's lurid jigsaw for a more conventional arc.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
In trying to find the decency in a killer, the film anxiously accounts for his every misdeed. It's a little like watching "City Of God" morph into "Three Men And A Baby."

50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
More calculated than a Starbucks sampler CD, the picture could win the up-from-hardship award.

50
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Tsotsi never comes across as anything but a brutal cipher, and serious issues such as black-on-black crime in the townships are left unexplored.

50
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Ends in a cascade of sentimentality straight out of Hollywood. Not even Chweneyagae's excellent acting or Lance Gewer's dark photography can save the film.

50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
A confused and improbable redemption song.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
What Tsotsi fails to explain is how the mere introduction of a baby can melt the cruel cycle of criminality and disregard for others.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
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