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Yards, The

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Mystery
Written by:
James Gray
Matt Reeves
Directed by: James Gray
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 20, 2000
DVD: April 17, 2001
Running Time: 115 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, violence and a scene of sexuality
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, and Faye Dunaway
A drama set in the vast New York City subway yards. After serving time in prison for taking the fall for a group of his friends, Leo Handler (Wahlberg) just wants to get his life back on track. So, Leo returns to the one place he thinks will be safe -- home. But in the yards, where his uncle (Caan) now pulls the strings, safe is not how they do business. (Miramax Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: We Own the Night
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson
Classic in feel and loaded with sumptuous performances.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
Don't be misled by claims that you've seen this one already. You haven't, and you should.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
So strong and secure in its remorseless movement that you buy into what's happening, its people so firmly gripped in the vise of fate and their own character flaws.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
May not have enough story to sustain its narrative momentum, but Gray just might be our best shot at a new Coppola.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A work of incompleteness, might-have-beens and moral subtleties befitting a filmmaker named Gray.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The cast is just right for this mini-"Godfather" yarn, and Gray's filmmaking is generally on target even if it does tend to dawdle along the way.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's that ambiguity that makes the film interesting.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Shines whenever we see the performances of Phoenix and Caan.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
For all its incongruities, The Yards is a serious film that strives for a moral complexity and a textural density rarely found in contemporary dramas.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Gray doesn't condescend to his outer-borough characters and elicits pitch-perfect performances from his ensemble cast.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Most haunting of all is Caan, who has never given a performance this layered.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Gray's brand of film-buffery manifests itself, simply and irresistibly, as ardent, uncynical movie love.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It almost completely falls apart in a tortuous third act and ultimately leaves us feeling strangely empty and dissatisfied.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
Instead of the usual contrast of black and white, The Yards offers a vivid palette of grays, and it's a far more rewarding color scheme for a movie.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
With one exception (hint: Faye Dunaway), the actors seem remarkably at home in their milieu.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
By the end, we're left with a feeling of depletion rather than resolution, which may have been Gray's intention.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Won't startle or surprise you but will satisfy your need to see good actors at work.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Caan is so good as a man who watches helplessly as everything he's worked for crumbles around him, that he steals the picture from both Wahlberg and Phoenix, the ostensible stars.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
For Caan's shtick alone, The Yards is worthwhile, but we may also be witnessing the emergence, in Gray, of a young filmmaker who's just starting to find the range.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
There's so much that's right in it that its blunders are all the more frustrating.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Entombs its characters so thoroughly in a prison of palpably predestined tragedy that one knows from the outset that the very worst that can happen most certainly will.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A drama about corruption in the city's transit system that's not only hard boiled but also dipped in egg batter dialogue and deep fried.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
A collection of movie situations, recognizable from the films of Coppola and Scorsese, with a less obvious debt to Kazan.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
A great director's losing battle against a goofy script.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Self-importance sinks this one like a stone.
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Gray's direction is a languid thing, moving at roughly the speed of a maimed snail, and the cast never really gels.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
So muted it disappears from your view even before it recedes from your memory.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
One more sluggish, artfully framed thriller with Rembrandt lighting set in a New York borough--a kind of picture that's awfully hard to do in a fresh manner.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jon H gave it a3:
Boring, felt like i've seen it a hundred times already, just bad filmmaking.
Jim M. gave it a 7:
Slow.
