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The Circle
Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    Suspenseful and ingeniously directed.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    100
    Quiet, rageful indictment of a two-tiered Islamic society.
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    100
    Naturalistic, gritty, and unrelenting.
    All this critic's reviews
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    Circles the heart of noisy, modern Tehran with an informal, documentary-like freedom that is thrilling in its naturalism.
  5. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: David Chute
    90
    A triumph of invisible craftsmanship that embraces so much specific detail that none of the women ever comes across as an emblem or an abstraction.
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    90
    The fact that this film, so sensitive to woman's plight, was made by a man is perhaps cause for a little hope.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    90
    Restrained yet powerful, devastating in its emotional effects.
  8. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    90
    The political implications of the film are manifest, as is the quiet courage of making it.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Deborah Young
    90
    Both fascinates and horrifies with its bold assertions about what it means to be a woman under a cruel, institutionalized patriarchy.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    A stunning drama about the desperate state of women in Iran.
    All this critic's reviews
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    90
    A memorable and devastating indictment of the oppression facing many women in Iran.
  12. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    The Circle is all the more depressing when we consider that Iran is relatively liberal compared to, say, Afghanistan under the Taliban.
  13. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    Panahi's simplicity accentuates the movie's power: its sense of life caught unobserved.
  14. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    88
    Such moral outrage, apart from the artistry in which it is embedded, tells us that the forces of change are stirring in Iran.
    All this critic's reviews
  15. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    83
    A mix of the poetic and the polemic, the film is oddly abstract and untethered.
  16. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    80
    This tightly structured, often exciting film is among the boldest in a series of increasingly explicit movies.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    80
    The picture is so dramatically textured that you feel something's happening every minute.
  18. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    80
    Panahi creates a raw, riveting film.
  19. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    Panahi is a maestro of anxiety. Whatever its political significance, this is a dark, sustained, and wrenching film.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    In its brisk way, it's a devastating piece of work, and very brave too.
  21. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Jean Oppenheimer
    80
    An extraordinary film from a born filmmaker.
  22. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    There's no denying it's a tragic film from start to finish, but equally undeniable is the endless stoicism displayed by the women, and Panahi's crisp, meandering direction.
  23. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    How dangerous it is to be a woman in Iran, especially one going against the wishes of her menfolk, is brought home time after time in these related vignettes.
  24. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    75
    It's a startling, speedy, gracefully executed indictment.
  25. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    75
    A terrific social drama, the work of an artist, not a pleader.
  26. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    A Kafkaesque series of interwoven stories that depict the hopeless lives half the populace there (Iran) must lead.
  27. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    70
    In The Circle, which is banned in Iran, the enforced society of women is, in effect, a community of adults treated as children.
  28. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    63
    This film is fighting the good fight, albeit in a rather heavy-handed way.
    All this critic's reviews
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