Fifty-Fifty
Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    100
    A stunning drama from that remote former Soviet republic.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Bennett
    80
    The brutality of the fights and Schizo's growing ability to outfox his enemies make for a taut and exciting little picture.
  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    Schizo is in its way a taut and exciting thriller.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    With a cast of mostly non-actors, the film seems rough-hewn, like something you'd find rusted along a road. But it's actually a sophisticated blend of crime thriller, coming-of-age story and social realism.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    Schizo offers not just the proverbial window into village life in Kazakhstan, but a panoramic view.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    True to its title, Schizo is both gripped by the past and pulled toward an unknown future.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    75
    Working from a script cowritten with accomplished Siberian filmmaker Sergey Bodrov, the director creates a taut picture of a place, and a liberating moment of choice.
  8. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    It's a gripping, understated thriller with a solid emotional undercurrent that builds to an unexpectedly moving denouement.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    70
    Schizo is an ugly name for a dark and lovely piece of work, but maybe that's the point. The world this film depicts can be a casually pitiless one, half modern and half tribal, but it can also offer compassion and beauty.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Ms. Omarova has a painter's eye for composition and a novelist's sense of character.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    60
    Schizo manages to keep it fresh.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    If one discounts the facile and unconvincing ending, this first feature by Guka Omarova, offers a convincingly bleak view of how a 15-year-old boy could get ahead in rural Kazakhstan in the early 90s.
  13. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: David Chute
    50
    Schizo is an earnest also-ran, sadly muffled by the opaque performance of non-actor Oldzhas Nusupbayev.
  14. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    50
    Though it's equally concerned with sensitive young criminals in squalid communities, Schizo is no "City Of God," for better and worse.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    50
    A modest, formulaic day trip from Kazakhstan.
  16. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Jen Chaney
    50
    Though it captures many sharp, stark details of life in poverty-stricken Kazakhstan, Schizo's momentum is so measured, it nearly lulls its audience to sleep.
  17. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    40
    A compelling screenplay, to be certain. But sadly, Omarova's direction is too leisurely to wring any emotional power.

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