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Vodka Lemon

EMAILPRINTNew Yorker Films

Vodka Lemon reviews
69
10.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Foreign

Written by: Hiner Saleem
Lei Dinety
Pauline Gouzenne (adaptation)

Directed by: Hiner Saleem

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 8, 2004
DVD: December 20, 2005

Running Time: 84 minutes, Color

Origin: France / Italy / Switzerland / Armenia

Language(s): Armenian / Kurdish / Russian / French (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Romen Avinian, Lala Sarkissian, Ivan Franek, Armen Marutyan, and Astrik Avaguian

This portrait of an abandoned community in the snowy badlands of post soviet Armenia celebrates its quirky characters at the same time that it mourns their plight. (New Yorker Films)

What The Critics Said

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

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Saleem, a Paris-based Kurd, displays the visual confidence and subtle screwball rhythms of a master, exploiting offscreen space, deadpan compositions, and deft visual backbeats, as well as attaining a breathtaking fidelity to real light and landscape.

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88

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Iraqi-Kurdish director-writer Hiner Saleem is in no hurry to tell the story, and viewers drawn in by the warm-hearted tale and charmingly eccentric characters will be in no hurry for the closing credits.

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80

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The thicket of relationships that the director, Hiner Saleem, has created and weaves his cast and camera through is so invitingly hotblooded and crowded with hilariously melodramatic incident that the snowbanks are not nearly as forbidding as they initially seem.

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80

Variety David Stratton

A little gem that takes a potentially grim subject and mines it for maximum humor and insight.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Director Hiner Saleem has created a magical movie that veers, even within scenes, from love story to tragedy to comic relief.

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75

Miami Herald Marta Barber

A fresh breath of air, warmer than the icy village in which it takes place. You'll leave the theater with a wink and a smile.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An appealingly wry little film that is as appetizing as its title.

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70

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A thematically bleak yet subtly comic film.

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70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

A dark-humored film about devastation, which makes Vodka Lemon's final rush into comedy in the truest sense all the more refreshing. Even in the wasteland, there might be humor other than the gallows kind.

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70

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

As the picture winds on, the feeling grows that Saleem, who clearly knows these people, wants to show that their mode of life in this stark setting has, in a gentle way, a touch of the ridiculous.

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70

TV Guide Ken Fox

The situation in these former republics may indeed be dire, but it's a breeding ground for exciting cinema.

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63

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

Saleem makes clever use of imagery, with the beautiful, snow-filled vistas representing his characters' personal and social isolation. But "Vodka" moves about as fast as the distant ice caps melt.

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63

Boston Globe Ty Burr

This is frostbitten Fellini -- a film that finds fresh beauty and contentment in the wake of centuries of conquering armies. The great joke of Vodka Lemon is that the conquerors missed what was there all along.

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50

LA Weekly David Chute

Exceedingly dry and precise and slow-paced comedy.

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50

Film Threat Phil Hall

The film's leisurely pacing is often too slow for its own good, and many scenes meander endlessly with no true payoff.

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50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Diverting but minor.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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