| 100 |
Entertainment Weekly
Rosetta is a character of raw pride in a film of lingering power.
|
| 90 |
Chicago Reader
You feel it in your nervous system before you get a chance to reflect on its meaning.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
The bleakness of Rosetta will not be for all, but it's one of the best films of the year.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The film has an odd subterranean power. It doesn't strive for our sympathy or make any effort to portray Rosetta as colorful, winning or sympathetic.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
An immensely uplifting movie whose final, unforgettable frames come as close as anything to answering the big questions about why we bother in a dog-eat-dog world.
|
| 87 |
Mr. Showbiz
Richard Jameson
The final reel of Rosetta is like nothing else ever filmed, and it would be wrong to describe it.
|
| 83 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
This devastating film is buoyed by Dequenne's bravura willingness to go all out; she's a baby-faced kid when the camera focuses full on and an exceptionally beautiful young woman in profile.
|
| 80 |
Slate
Throughout this terse, entertaining parable (it won the grand prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival), the Belgian-born writer-directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne ("La Promesse," 1996) immerse you in the sensations of Rosetta's life.
|
| 80 |
Time
The purity of Dequenne's performance inspires awe.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Grabs you by the throat and won't let go.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
This kind of film, in its various manifestations recurring through the decades, gives us confidence that cinema can ultimately get to the heart of things.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Bleak, demanding stuff, and its hand-held documentary-style photography is harder on the stomach than "The Blair Witch Project."
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Carries a strong emotional charge along with its valuable reminder of the suffering that youngsters may undergo when a heedless society overlooks their needs.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The film's loose, scaled-down technique never turns gimmicky...but enhances the tension and intimacy of Rosetta's struggle.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Pummeling, jagged, and extremely well-edited film.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
A psychologically acute profile of one teenaged girl obsessed with leading what she thinks of as normal life.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Instead of feeling universal, the movie feels claustrophobic.
|
| 60 |
LA Weekly
A portrait of dispossession so acute that it's caused a few critics to cry, Let her eat cake!
|
| 42 |
Portland Oregonian
The Dardennes are talents, clearly. Watching Rosetta is like watching them flip you the bird.
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