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Unknown Pleasures
Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
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  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    90
    Unknown Pleasures suggests a coolly formalist reinvention of neorealism. The film is both distanced and immediate -- a fiction with the force of documentary.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    A stunning study of ennui.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    There's a telling disjunction between the dismal lives of Jia's characters and the optimism of China's officially sunny advance into the 21st century, and their helplessness often becomes a pathetic pantomime.
  4. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    Much like his overrated 2000 opus "Platform," Unknown Pleasures spends more energy fussing over the backdrop than on the poor souls languishing in the fore, who have little to do but wander aimlessly and symbolically as life passes them by.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    There are several small, startling moments of insight hidden amid the long, slow stretches of listlessness. But the balance is slightly off. We could have used a little more pleasure to get us through his grim adolescent unknown.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    60
    Perhaps the world doesn't need another picture on disaffected youth, but Pleasures is about more than alienation.
  7. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    This sequel to Jia's excellent 1997 drama "Xiao Wu" is less original and absorbing than its predecessor, and less visually impressive than "Platform," his 2000 look at Chinese sociopolitical change.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: C.W. Nevius
    50
    The story goes nowhere...We don't understand the motivation of the characters.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    50
    As lethargic as the characters it portrays, the film requires greater staying power than many audiences will possess.
  10. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    25
    The film drags and lingers and goes more or less nowhere, imitating its protagonists' lives so exactly that you want to give them both a good smack.
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