| 100 |
Baltimore Sun
An exhilarating movie about sadness and renewal.
|
| 100 |
Washington Post
Exquisitely textured film.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
There are moments in All or Nothing of such acute observation that we nod in understanding -- The closing scenes of the movie are just about perfect.
|
| 90 |
Film Threat
It's a remarkable film; the dialogue takes our breath away with its sharp skewering of expectations and realities, the bleak honesty is balanced by the freshness of real life and moments of raw truth and comedy -- Don't miss it.
|
| 90 |
Salon.com
Mike Leigh returns to the council flats of London -- and delivers a richly Dickensian masterpiece about working-class family life.
|
| 90 |
LA Weekly
It's a strangely stirring experience that finds warmth in the coldest environment and makes each crumb of emotional comfort feel like a 10-course banquet.
|
| 90 |
The New York Times
All the drinking, arguing and brooding, which in lesser hands might have produced oppressive and unvarying dreariness, somehow adds up to a tableau of extraordinary vividness and variety.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
The acting in All or Nothing is superb. Everyone creates a character we can immediately register and recognize as true.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
No picnic to watch -- Leigh's camera is unsentimental and unsparing.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Meredith Brody
A comic and moving examination of life in an impoverished South London housing complex, features marvelous performances, especially from Leigh stalwart Timothy Spall.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
Though it's become almost redundant to say so, major kudos go to Leigh for actually casting people who look working-class; you'd be hard-pressed to get an American studio to go along with that, even though Leigh alumni often become famous.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
Hollywood hardly ever pays attention to such people, and the average moviegoer won't either. But Leigh makes an irrefutable claim that their lives matter, and that attention must be paid.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Leigh's uncanny ability to mine emotional truth packs the usual punch. And the trademark flashes of humor sprinkled throughout ease the bleakness of the landscape.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Leigh doesn't sentimentalize these tragic, dead-end lives but allows his characters to be ugly and stupid, to make horrendous mistakes. Sometimes they're laughable, and yet there's never the sense that Leigh is mocking them.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Leigh isn't breaking new ground, but he knows how a daily grind can kill love. Strong stuff.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Suffers from touches of sentimentality in its last portion -- Many viewers may welcome this last-minute brightening, though. If so, All or Nothing could join "Topsy Turvy" and "Secrets & Lies" as one of Leigh's most widely enjoyed recent films.
|
| 75 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Everything you've come to expect, and cherish, in a Mike Leigh movie.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
In an outstanding ensemble, Spall is particularly good.
|
| 70 |
Variety
The wealth of behavioral detail and observational humor make for some rewarding drama that will resonate with many viewers.
|
| 70 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's a hard-won comfort, found here over a bleak stretch of days, but All Or Nothing makes it look like the best life has to offer.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
All or Nothing has some appealing performances, several scenes of absolutely shattering domestic drama and an uncanny aura of gut-wrenching, documentarylike authenticity.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
In that rare moment, the movie relaxes its rictus of pain and actually dares to feel good. Moments like these aren't just a negotiation between all and nothing -- they're everything that allows us to care about even those characters who only slouch and shriek ''F -- - orfff!''
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
There's no doubt that Leigh gets inside his characters' lives. But that's often someplace we'd rather not be.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
A mostly glum, gray and grim story lit by a fugitive sunbeam.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
Grueling, heavy-handed, and surprisingly insight-free. For once, a gaggle of Leigh characters hasn't jelled beyond the level of its cast's conceits.
|
| 60 |
Washington Post
Will probably appeal only to the most committed of Leigh fans.
|
| 60 |
Slate
Pure misery.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Leigh piles up woe wider and higher than ever before. That he has done so with his usual skill, perception and alertness to relieving gestures of human tenderness and care does not keep All or Nothing from being a pretty glum, overly familiar business.
|
| 50 |
Wall Street Journal
This feelbad movie makes you glad when it's over.
|
| 40 |
New York Magazine
The empathy never lifts off -- never becomes poetry. It doesn't help that Leigh indulges his unfortunate habit of larding the soundtrack with draggy, mournful music, heavy on the cello.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Though more cathartic than redemptive, this sob-racked confession is the payoff for two hours of low-grade misery.
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