The Biggest Little Farm
Neon | Release Date: May 10, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonMay 15, 2019
Climate change is never explicitly mentioned in the documentary The Biggest Little Farm, one of the year’s best films, but it hangs all over the deep, rich story of the Chesters, a pair of hardscrabble idealists who move from the concrete jungle of Santa Monica to start a 200-acre, sustainable farm from scratch. Read full review
100
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 14, 2019
It is the most American movie of 2019, wearing its optimism in every gilded, rain-speckled, sun-flecked frame. Read full review
88
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMay 16, 2019
Often fascinating, and sometimes even moving. There are lessons here about the cycle of life that can only be driven home by the real, random, and sometimes cruel dictates of fate. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJanice PageMay 15, 2019
Think “An Inconvenient Truth” meets “Babe,” or “The Good Earth” meets a biodiverse “Marley & Me,” with a dash of the Food Network’s “Pioneer Woman” tossed in. Among other things, that means furry critters romping to a folksy soundtrack with tubas and banjos employed unironically. It means circle-of-life lessons and sun-dappled everything. It means check your cynicism and snark at the gate, if you dare. Read full review
88
New York PostSara StewartMay 9, 2019
In a time when climate news is near-uniformly depressing, this is a nature documentary that pays loving and hopeful tribute to the complex web of life — and it won’t scare your kids. Read full review
85
Film ThreatAlan NgMay 18, 2019
The Biggest Little Farm not only has by-the-minute drama and an ever-present tension between success and failure, but as an accomplished cinematographer, the film’s images of the farm is breathtaking. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyMay 17, 2019
A first-person documentary about a Los Angeles couple’s decision to move to the country and start a farm overcomes its excessively preciously start to become a genuinely insightful meditation on agriculture, nature, and our precarious relationship to the planet that feeds us. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 9, 2019
As the story unfolds over nearly a decade, Biggest becomes something even more impactful: a thoughtful and often profoundly moving portrait of the remarkable work involved in producing mindful food — and an eloquent reminder that so much of what we take for granted on our plates is, in its own everyday way, a miracle. Read full review
83
The Film StageJohn FinkSep 19, 2018
While a cynic could dismiss the film as branded content for Apricot Lane Farms, the film isn’t making a sales pitch for their products. Rather, it’s a captivating personal journey with a concern for harmony and a gentle sense of humor. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 12, 2018
It’s a remarkable educational experience for anyone eager to go back to the basics. In the process, it arrives at a deeper understanding of the underlying impulse, while delivering an emotionally resonant narrative with plenty of cute animals to spare. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 14, 2019
Happily, this is a movie about not just idealism but practical idealism, and the struggle that maintaining it requires. It looks drop-dead gorgeous and, despite a few storytelling short cuts, it's unexpectedly moving. Read full review
80
The New York TimesGlenn KennyMay 9, 2019
If you’ve entertained “Green Acres”-inspired reveries on the joys of “farm living,” this documentary may rid you of them in short order. But it may also revive your wonder at the weird but ultimately awe-inspiring ways in which humans can help nature do its work. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 12, 2018
Both deeply personal and remarkably objective, The Biggest Little Farm offers a firsthand account of the ups and downs of married duo John and Molly Chester’s trial-and-error attempt to start a biodiverse agricultural operation on land that had long since been stripped of nutrients. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 14, 2019
This is a must-see film, not just for the primer it offers in how foodways, farming practices and larger environmental forces are crucially connected but for its dazzling imagery of nature in action, both by way of breathtaking close-ups and sensational aerial shots of the farm and its environs. Read full review
70
TheWrapYolanda MachadoMay 9, 2019
The Biggest Little Farm is a decent personal narrative film — even inspiring at times — but it could have provided a much-needed educational view and a deeper look at the importance of California’s essential agricultural life. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 9, 2019
The combination of technique and message is ultimately winning. It’s tempting to think of Biggest Little Farm as the real-life equivalent of an epic pastoral storybook tale, but with the kind of happy ending that suggests a blueprint for saving the earth. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 12, 2018
Running a farm is a tough life of never-ending work, and once the film drops its initial idealization of back-to-the-land fantasies in favor of a more realistic assessment of the challenges involved, it becomes genuinely involving and heartening. Read full review
70
Screen DailyDavid D'ArcySep 12, 2018
Most of those who’ll see The Biggest Little Farm will be drawn by its ardent, gentle idealism, and less by its hard-headed look at the challenges of sustainable farming. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 15, 2019
If the film’s conclusion reads a touch too much like a sales pitch, I didn’t mind; the Chesters’ thoughtful approach to living in harmony with nature is one we should all buy into. Read full review
67
The PlaylistChristian GallichioSep 13, 2018
The Chesters have created something truly stunning and want to share it with the world. I’m sold on the lifestyle but as a film, their approach doesn’t make for the most compelling drama. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 3, 2019
You can feel the ungainly attempts to force that material into tidy little narratives. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzMay 11, 2019
All in all, this is a very likable, if sometimes a bit too polished and vague. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleMay 9, 2019
The Biggest Little Farm can at times feel like a larger, better-produced version of the kind of viral video that spreads on Facebook, equal parts uplifting and self-congratulating. It’s a self-contained film about a self-contained paradise. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 6, 2019
The film is often quite moving in spite of its evasions, suggesting a real-life Charlotte’s Web, but one wonders what an artist with a bit more distance might’ve made of such rich material. Read full review
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