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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
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87
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86
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84
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83
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83
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83
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82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
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82
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82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
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79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
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77
Every Little Step
77
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75
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74
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74
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74
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74
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74
Lemon Tree
71
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71
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70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
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67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
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62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
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56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
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55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Vertical Ray of the Sun, The
Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for thematic elements and some sex-related material
Starring
Tran Nu Yên-Khê,
Nhu Quynh Nguyen,
Le Khanh,
Quang Hai Ngo,
and
Chu Hung
On the anniversary of their mother's death, three sisters in contemporary Hanoi meet to prepare a memorial banquet. After the banquet, the calm exteriors of the sisters' lives begin to give way to more turbulent truths. (Sony Pictures Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Anh Hung Tran
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Anh Hung Tran
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 18, 2001
Video: December 18, 2001
Theatrical: July 6, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
112 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
France / Germany / Vietnam |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Vietnamese (with English subtitles) |
Original title "À la verticale de l'été"

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...
90
Newsweek
David Ansen
Vertical Ray slows our rhythms and heightens our senses: it's a shimmering, tactile experience.

90
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A wholly enveloping experience. Gentle, ravishingly beautiful and awash in everyday sensuality, it so intoxicates you with the elegance and refinement of its filmmaking that even noticing, let alone caring, whether it has a plot starts to seem beside the point.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's a simple story with complex reverberations and undercurrents, as secrets keep being revealed.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Underneath the ravishing imagery however, hearts are in flux.

80
New Times (L.A.)
Bill Gallo
It's a bewildering but deeply satisfying paradox, this constant, nearly silent collision in Tran's films of the visible world and the turbulent, unseen world.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
There are scenes that simply ask the audience to drink in the details, to enjoy the repast, just as much as follow the plot.

78
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
The magnificence of the film's pieces does not quite add up to a satisfying whole.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Beautiful, languorous, passive -- it plays like background music for itself.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Much of the film is oddly ambiguous, as if Tran used it to explore conflicts of tradition and modernity and never came up with any answers.

75
Portland Oregonian
Staff (Not credited)
Tran's cinematography is delicate yet probing. Faces, especially eyes, tell much of the story.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The cinematography is gorgeous from first frame to last, but the story occasionally rings false.

75
USA Today
Mike Clark
Few filmmakers of the past 20 years have mesmerized as much in their use of crisp, color-drenched photography.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Wesley Morris
Plays like a holy, erotic mood piece, steeped in so much subdued jungle fever that it practically runs on photosynthesis.

75
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Made of a serene dynamite that's all but unknown to American film audiences.

70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
An oblique, vaguely sorrowful study in domestic emotion, structured around the small eruptions of feeling -- tenderness, anger, and joy -- that punctuate the slow serenity of daily life.

63
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
For all its virtues, this is not a film to see on less than a good night's sleep.

63
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Here's the downside, and it's not just me: You need a scorecard to keep track of the sisters, their brother, two husbands, a boyfriend, two (or three?) extramarital lovers.

60
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Filled with bird sounds, Vertical Ray is almost surreal in its paradise imagery -- the movie is a sultry, harmoniously expressionistic riot of pale greens and deep yellows.

60
Mr. Showbiz
Kevin Maynard
If you're looking for refuge from summer movie bombast, it's frequently intoxicating.
60
TV Guide
Ken Fox
This sleepyheaded atmosphere, augmented by the languid songs of Lou Reed and Arab Strap, hangs so heavily over the film that the viewer is lulled into a state dangerously close to unconsciousness.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Story is fairly conventional and not especially well told, though as usual Tran's images are so sensual and beautiful that I was rarely bored or frustrated.


The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
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