The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)
User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 58
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 58
  3. Negative: 7 out of 58

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. BenjaminA.
    Aug 7, 2004
    2
    Is this a joke? How is this B-movie about Eskimos number 4 on metacritic all time list? Honestly. This movie was really boring. I rented this solely based on its high reviews on this site, and was thuroughly disappointed. Wow. I'll give it a bit of credit for being bold and making a movie in Inuit. But skip this one, go to number 5.
  2. RonP.
    Aug 1, 2002
    4
    Aw, come one guys! I cannot believe that MicK LaSalle is the only one who faulted this movie for being too long. It's way too long, buy maybe an hour!. This would have made an interesting short, but spending this much time with these folks was painful, to say the least.
  3. C.M.
    Aug 3, 2002
    4
    I can't remember the last time I looked at my watch 4 times during a movie. I was too bored to see the hidden beauty of this film. I'm suprised bc I loved "The Straight Story" by David Lynch. I just get the feeling that people feel like they "have" to like this movie and so they do.
  4. John
    Jan 8, 2004
    3
    An almost universal failing of critics is that anything they don't understand ultimately gets rated based on cultural and political biases. In today's world native culture = good, WASP culture = bad. This movie gets raves primarily because it is so "native", not because it tells a well-paced story or wows us with its beauty. If there were more right-wing film critics it would get universally panned for the same reason. The fact is, this movie is DULL and raving about it won't forgive your white-guilt nor will it make you seem intellectual. It has honest appeal to those who enjoy cultural anthropology tomes, but for the rest of us it's a snoozer.… Expand
  5. LizzieS.
    Jun 24, 2004
    0
    At first i did not want to go to this movie, then i thought, hey it could be a cool movie, maybe a learning experience. After I sat through the painfull 2 hours and 12 minutes of full frontal nudity, and death fights for women I relized what it lacked in captivation it made up for in characters whose name started with a, not that i am against foreign films but this is an insult to common decsency.… Expand
  6. LeticiaH.
    Jun 15, 2005
    1
    i watched this film in my grade 12 sociology class, and most of the class snuck out somewhere in the second hour, not to return. I did watch the entire film, and i tried to be objective as my teacher was absolutley enthralled by it. I have to conclude tho, that the only thing that made it worthwhile watching was reading all these reviews after and laughing at the insulting ones and hearing hints of sarcasm from the critics. Truly i was bored by it. I have seen snow before and although some things can seem beautiful a million times over these film makers did not seem to make an effort in that way. I am not biased because i love hollywood movies so much and that is what i was expecting..in truth i neither love hollywood nor expected it, but the content and plot while perhaps true were not uplifting to me. to use the teen term; same crap, different pile. if this film was edited i would be interested to know what they filmed that could possibly have been worse than what they left in. it gets a one becuase it had the potential, with the story line to be a captivating film. i did learn more about the inuit culture, but i do beleive it would have been more interesting in a textbook.… Expand
  7. GaetanS.
    Nov 10, 2003
    3
    Interesting because it opens a window to a culture we don't know much about, but the acting and filming is so amateurish that I couldn't go through 3 hours of this snore fest.
  8. MarkS.
    Oct 25, 2003
    2
    You've got to be kidding me. I think I'll go visit the North Pole and do a documentary on ice fishing; maybe I can get the critics to ejaculate all over themselves like they did for this waste of 0's and 1's. Tough to follow, boring, and just plain painful to watch. I'd rather watch ice melt...or my watch, as evidenced by the number of times I prefered looking there rather than few the screen.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
91 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    The perfect antidote to the summer heat in Austin, more refreshing even than a dip in our chilly holy waters of Barton Springs.
    Read full review
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Its refusal to draw solid lines between "good" and "evil" characters is more sophisticated than the psychology of most current commercial pictures. It's well worth a trek to a theater adventurous enough to show it.
    Read full review
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    Nearly three hours long, and deliberately paced at that, this first feature ever in the Inuit language is a demanding experience. But the rewards for those who risk the journey are simply extraordinary.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »