Graduation
Sundance Selects | Release Date: April 7, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 13, 2017
The power of the film is cumulative, as the filmmaker spins a mesmerizing morality tale from the dross of daily life. In his skillful hands, the ordinary turns out to be anything but. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireApr 7, 2017
A fascinating and fastidiously complex study of one man’s moral choices at a crucial juncture in his life, Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation is a thoroughgoing masterpiece which offers proof that Romania’s cinematic upsurge remains the most vital and important national film movement of the current century. Read full review
100
CineVueChristopher MachellMar 30, 2017
For all the moral degradation of its characters, Graduation is uncompromising in its vision of the cost of parental responsibility. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 21, 2016
Graduation is an intricate, deeply intelligent film, and a bleak picture of a state of national depression in Romania, where the 90s generation hoped they would have a chance to start again. There are superb performances from Titien and Dragus. Read full review
100
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 21, 2016
It’s not a despairing movie – Mungiu even suggests that a new generation might put things right – but it’s a brutally honest one. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 21, 2016
An excoriating, gripping, intricately plotted morality play, Mungiu’s film is less linear, more circular or spiral-shaped than his previous Cannes titles...but it is no less rigorous and possibly even more eviscerating and critical of Romanian society, because it offers its critique across such a broad canvas. Read full review
90
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeApr 20, 2017
One of this generation’s most interesting filmmakers still has plenty to say and an impressive dexterity at saying it. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 13, 2017
Bleak, naturalistic and flawlessly acted, Graduation distills the mood and moral decay of a place whose gray skies and nondescript housing blocks feel like permanent reminders of its dark history. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 6, 2017
Graduation is long and intense, a rigorously naturalistic film that at times feels as claustrophobic and suspenseful as a horror movie. Like Mr. Mungiu’s other work, it is a thriller of sorts, built around an excruciating ethical problem. He is unstinting in his sympathy and unsparing in his judgment. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 31, 2017
It’s the latest from Cristian Mungiu, one of the leading lights of the New Romanian Cinema and the director of “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” by general critical consensus one of the finest films of the new millennium. Graduation is a more quietly damning drama; it doesn’t eviscerate you like the earlier movie but instead sticks with you like a nagging doubt. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonApr 27, 2017
In a first-rate cast, Titieni turns in a brilliant performance as a man who sacrifices long-held values to bow to the expediency of the moment. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 20, 2017
A beautifully spun and morally searching tale of interlocking compromises. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 6, 2017
Graduation, isn't quite on the landmark level of his searing 2007 abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," but this gripping film still sizzles with Mungiu's social-realist concern for people who believe they can't raise their position based on merit alone. In that sense, the filmmaker is working on a universal level. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 28, 2017
What also comes through is a quietly scathing portrait of a society in which every move, overtly or covertly, is monitored. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 4, 2017
Like everything else associated with it, the drama of Graduation is decidedly low-key. While that occasionally costs it a sense of forward momentum, it doesn't hold the film back from its ultimate goals. In fact, it contributes to it in some ways. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 27, 2017
The acting is outstanding; Mungiu’s straightforward dialogue and naturalistic shooting make for a movie that feels genuine, with no false steps. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonApr 9, 2017
Masterfully filmed in long takes, this slow-burner lays bare a world of systemic corruption. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaApr 7, 2017
Graduation, like Mungiu’s lauded "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," layers misfortunes and mistakes on top of one another in a way that feels both oppressive and true. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonMar 27, 2017
With the camera placement being as meticulous as the use of Handel on the soundtrack, this impeccably played saga deservedly earned Mungiu a share of the Best Director prize at Cannes. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 24, 2016
The intergenerational debate underlying Graduation does throw novel wrinkles into the mix. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 21, 2016
Graduation isn’t one of Mungiu’s finest, but even a restrained, emotionally measured work like this is more interesting and provocative than many another director’s best effort. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJun 1, 2017
The plot depends on an improbably interdependent set of acquaintances and events, but the cinematography, the dialogue and the performances, especially Adrian Titieni’s as an earnest and anxious Mr. Fix-It, are impressively naturalistic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 20, 2017
In Graduation, Mungiu takes a scalpel and dissects life in modern Romania. He shows what’s wrong with the government and the impact this has on people’s relationships. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 5, 2017
In the end, it’s the hard questions that linger, disquietingly unanswered. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSep 25, 2016
Cristian Mungiu's film is more than just a cry of despair toward the hopelessness of life in modern-day Romania. Read full review
75
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 22, 2016
It’s a moving portrait, but it’s also a very familiar and transparently constructed one, preventing the narrative from generating the urgency necessary to endow its moral implications with genuine vigor. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 13, 2017
A quietly transfixing drama. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 3, 2017
Graduation, written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, is a mirthless farce. All that can go wrong does go wrong, and the process is both compelling and close to unwatchable. Read full review
70
VarietyJay WeissbergMay 21, 2016
As expected from a master like Mungiu, everything is beautifully structured and utterly credible, yet Graduation feels like a retread. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisApr 26, 2017
Graduation may not occupy a place at the top of the class of contemporary Eastern European cinema like some of Mungiu’s other films, but it definitely sits above the curve. Read full review
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