DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
58
Adam Resurrected
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
44
Answer Man, The
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil![]()
58
Away We Go
54
Battle for Terra
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell![]()
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
26
Filth and Wisdom
80
Food, Inc.
34
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo![]()
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
43
Love 'N Dancing
64
Lymelife
50
Management
63
Medicine for Melancholy
56
Monsters vs. Aliens
34
My Life in Ruins
48
Not Forgotten
76
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
54
Observe and Report
78
O'Horten
42
Orphan
48
Proposal, The
40
Shrink
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
88
Tulpan![]()
66
Unmistaken Child
45
Whatever Works
34
Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Boarding Gate

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Olivier Assayas
Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 21, 2008
DVD: June 3, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: R for violence, sexual content, language and some drug material
Starring Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Loong Ng, and Kelly Lin
Ex-prostitute Sandra is forced to flee London after a steamy S&M encounter with a debt-ridden ex-lover ends in violence. Fleeing to Hong Kong in search of a fresh start, she becomes involved with an attractive young couple, Lester and Sue, who promise to help her obtain papers and money. But nothing turns out as expected for Sandra, and she finds herself trapped in a sordid game of manipulation. (Magnet Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Premiere Glenn Kenny
This is very much a French intellectual cineaste's idea of a B thriller, and hence is as far from innocent in its genre as you can get. Which is not to say that Assayas deals in bad faith.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Even in Boarding Gate, a modestly scaled, self-consciously tawdry exercise in genre appropriation, Mr. Assayas manages to say more about what it is to be human -- to desire, to fear, to be alone -- than most filmmakers say in a lifetime.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Argento always gives us something to watch, and maybe even something to fear. I've never seen her in a movie where I haven't been at least a little bit scared of her.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The plot may be murky, but actress Asia Argento is a clear and commanding force throughout.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Boarding Gate's surfaces are often so staggeringly beautiful that its superficiality becomes forgivable, with the pleasant distractions of Assayas' multi-layered frames, Argento's sinewy allure, and snippets of Brian Eno ambience on the soundtrack. Why can't all movies this inane be this accomplished?
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Seriously flawed and not for every taste, the film was shot quickly and on the cheap, and is driven by Argento's slurred, scratchy voice and Bette Davis eyes.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The oddball cast, by the way, includes Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who is infinitely more convincing speaking Cantonese than she is in her (presumably native) English.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Call it a victory of conviction over substance, but when Argento is onscreen, you look at her - not because she's good, but because she's there in a way nobody else is.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
There's basically only one reason to see Olivier Assayas's self-consciously hypermodern, meta-sleazy, English-French-Chinese-language globo-thriller Boarding Gate, and her name is Asia Argento.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Boarding Gate was evidently made quickly and cheaply, and parts of it are fun. It’s too bad there’s no real viewer equivalent--that you can’t WATCH a film quickly and cheaply.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
It’s time for this talented man (Assayas) to pull himself together. He may have something serious to say about the brutal impersonality of global capitalism, yet he’s caught somewhere between insight and exploitation.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
A ridiculous poseur thriller that seems to be made up of the slow moments from Hong Kong action films and Euro-flashy stuff like "Run Lola Run."
Read Full Review >Variety Russell Edwards
Thrills and drama are left standing on the tarmac in Boarding Gate a limp, sleazy inanity by renowned French critic cum erratic helmer Olivier Assayas.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Scott C. gave it an8:
I agree it's not for every taste. But Asia Argento is mesmerizing and bizarre. The whole film is deeply atmospheric, sexy, dangerous, and fairly unhinged. Heady and carrying the whiff of depth, but with cheap kicky thrills. I loved it.
