| 100 |
Christian Science Monitor
The first feature-length movie from Bhutan tells its lighthearted story through smart performances, appealing images, and unfailing good humor.
|
| 90 |
Washington Post
A chalice of unpretentious delight, flowing over with goodwill, a cheeky love for soccer and, uh, Buddhist humor.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
The lovability quotient is as high as the altitude.
|
| 88 |
New York Post
So joyous it can actually shake viewers out of a bad mood.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
This sweet little movie is a mild comedy, a much calmer cousin to "Sister Act," with men in robes rather than women in habits.
|
| 80 |
The New York Times
A very funny movie, alive with a sense of absurdity and human foible.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The glimpses of religious life bumping into secular passion are touching and warmly comic.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
It's a clear-eyed, unsentimental portrait and indelible for that very reason.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A delightful demonstration of how spirituality can coexist quite happily with an intense desire for France to defeat Brazil.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Past the foreign mysticism and eccentricity of Tibetan Buddhism to portray its characters as unmistakably, identifiably human.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
A small film and, ultimately, a satisfying one.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
Could well end up on the coming Oscar ballot for best foreign language film.
|
| 70 |
Film.com
Wouldn't you rather learn about his culture from Norbu than from Richard Gere?
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Charming, slyly comic and far from conventionally religious.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
The tragedy of modern Tibet haunts this otherwise lighthearted tale of life inside a Buddhist monastery-in-exile.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
While never dull, The Cup is a leisurely, quiet film, rife with staid, sometimes ponderous moments reflecting the seriousness of their situation in exile.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
An improbably funny and transcendent account of soccer-mad Tibetan monks in exile at a Bhutan monastery.
|
| 60 |
LA Weekly
Though The Cup is lovely to look at, it has none of the ceremonial rigor mortis of Scorsese's "Kundun."
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Norbu tries too hard to please and charm, but his film at least carries the advantages of unactorly faces and a premise based on actual events that dramatizes the issue of religious vocation in a secular world.
|
| 58 |
Mr. Showbiz
A cute, clichéd, coming-of-age comedy.
|
| 50 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Never offers much enlightenment through its message.
|
| 50 |
Film.com
Too slow-moving and too understated in much of its humor.
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
Little more than a plodding celebration of global television trumping everything in its midst.
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