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100This beautifully sculpted poetic naturalism has more in common with the expressive use of words in the great screenplays of '40s and '50s than with modern movies.
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91What could have been a parlor game becomes a surprisingly rich sketchbook, boosted by the work of fine actors.
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90A bold film both in its storytelling strategies and its filmmaking logistics.
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90Garcia is a thoughtful filmmaker not only by the group of actors he has gathered, but in remembering that there has been and will be people watching his movie.
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90As a film composed entirely of nine continuous long takes, Nine Lives certainly qualifies as unique. But what makes it rarer and more auspicious is that it offers such a rich bounty of great roles for middle-aged women.
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90That rare episode film that actually accrues a cumulative power and doesn't merely proceed from one segment to the next.
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90Together, however, they add up to a film that may be the closest movies have come to the cinematic equivalent of a collection of Chekhov short stories.
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90García wanted to paint a canvas of nine elements, rather than one large element; and, though only a few of the vignettes are related, the film leaves us with a sense of wholeness, not of stunt.
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90The scenes are so dramatically cogent the characters' lives seem to stretch far beyond the concluding blackouts.
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88A movie like this, with the appearance of new characters and situations, focuses us; we watch more intently, because it is important what happens.
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88A disturbingly frank look at people and relationships in contemporary Los Angeles and a thrilling dramatic showcase for a brilliant cast.
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88In refusing to pigeonhole its characters, Nine Lives is less like those L.A. road-rage melodramas "Short Cuts" and "Crash" than those all-of-us-are-interconnected dramas "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams."
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80Though the episodic structure results in a whole not quite equal to some of its parts, pic is an unusually tender, perceptive character study buoyed by stellar performances from a who's who of talented (and many underused) actresses.
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80The beauty of Nine Lives is that its occasionally overlapping stories feel entirely unforced; Garcia's is a filmmaking style of rare lyricism, compassion and discretion.
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78One wishes perhaps for a more thumping conclusion, but what we have instead is something perfectly in the spirit of the piece, reaffirming that life, big and little, happens in 10 minutes chunks.
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75A couple of the stories don't quite accomplish what Rodrigo intends, but most are poignant, disturbing, and superbly acted.
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75An emotionally satisfying example of a genre whose sketchiness can be off-putting.
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75Beautifully acted and emotionally devastating.
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75Not all of Nine Lives clicks, but at its best it finds an inarticulate sisterly solace that makes you want to see what this director could do with one life per film.
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75The snaky cinematography pulls you through even when the writing doesn't, and the best performances keep you hoping that you'll feel the next one or the one after that just as powerfully.
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70Five or six lives might have felt more concise; nine test the patience a bit, though it is impressive that each is composed of a single Steadicam shot.
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67The uneven Nine Lives has an impressive cast, but the best section features the great Mexican actress Elpidio Carrillo as a prison inmate kept from her child.
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Nine Lives hands the viewer a lot of work -- learning a whole new set of characters every few minutes -- for a disappointing wage. The bad stories waste your time, and the good ones leave you unsatisfied.
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50In yet another roundelay that, like "Crash" and "Heights," follows the "Short Cuts" template of cosmic interconnection.
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38Movies like this usually have something interesting to say about the human condition, but not Nine Lives. It makes an insufferably obvious observation: we live boring lives, shit happens, and we die.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 13
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Mixed: 2 out of 13
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Negative: 3 out of 13
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tokiasme9Lovely, touching and profound.
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Shauna1
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AwalK.5