The Other Side of Hope
Janus Films | Release Date: December 1, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyDec 7, 2017
It's a rare feat for a director whose films, from their muted humour and dated-seeming mise-en-scène, to their use of flat, unexpressive, Bressonian close-ups of characters, have always seemed weirdly outside of time. Read full review
100
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 17, 2017
Hope is as contemporary and vital a film as you’re likely to find in 2017, but it’s also one of the funniest and most classically (not to mention beautifully) cinematic too. Read full review
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 17, 2017
As a writer, Kaurismäki has a precious knack for jokes that work beautifully in any language. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 19, 2017
Somehow one of the effects of our current state of topsy-turviness has been to bring us closer into alignment with Kaurismäki’s skewed vision; if his movies are all, in their way, like pictures hanging crooked on a wall, with The Other Side of Hope we don’t have to tilt our heads anymore: the whole house has moved around us. Read full review
91
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 17, 2017
Winsome, sweet, and often very funny, The Other Side of Hope is more of the same from Kaurismäki, and thank God for that. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 4, 2017
The Other Side of Hope — which is tragic, funny, depressing, and inspiring — shows that a truly imaginative artist has resources unavailable to journalists and nonfiction filmmakers. In Kaurismaki’s work, it’s as if the masks of comedy and tragedy don’t — as usual — face away from each other, but stare each other in the face, as if they were saying, “You and me, we’re in this together.” Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 30, 2017
The deadpan style of the acting functions as a vaccine against sentimentality, but there is no doubting the sincerity of this movie’s motives or the effectiveness of its methods. Read full review
90
Village VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimNov 30, 2017
For all the deadpan comedy and eccentric characterization, Kaurismäki anchors the film in Khaled’s story and his immigration anxieties, all depicted with quiet humanity that never feels exaggerated. It’s a beautiful companion piece to Le Havre, and a film that will gently warm your cold, cynical heart. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 17, 2017
While the film depicts a world seldom far removed from grim reality, the sly strain of humor keeps it buoyant, nowhere more so than in Kaurismaki’s deadpan dialogue, delivered with affectless aplomb by his marvelous cast. Read full review
90
Screen DailyDan FainaruFeb 17, 2017
As economical in his visual style as he is with his dialogue, Kaurismaki makes the most out of having his actors do the least. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyDec 1, 2017
Kaurismäki makes these bigots look ridiculous, but he also takes very seriously the damage they do, and the movie’s finale takes that into account. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineTim GriersonDec 21, 2017
There’s nothing adorable or convoluted about this collision of worlds. The Other Side of Hope makes room for jokes about bad restaurants alongside stark monologues about the horrors of Syria. It operates in an atmosphere of constant conflicting emotions. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard BrodyNov 30, 2017
Running gags about oddball twists in the restaurant business serve little purpose but don’t detract from the movie’s essential quasi-documentary power. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 30, 2017
While the conclusion to The Other Side of Hope is open-ended, Kaurismaki unashamedly believes in brotherhood, and among other things his film celebrates people who do the right thing without making a big deal about it. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonDave CalhounMay 22, 2017
It’s a deeply humane film, as well as a quietly hilarious one. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleFeb 17, 2017
Using comedy to chase away the despair of modern life, The Other Side of Hope is a thoroughly satisfying and distinctively lovable film. Read full review
80
The GuardianRyan GilbeyFeb 17, 2017
There aren’t really any surprises in The Other Side of Hope; it’s more like witnessing the ongoing cultivation of a humane philosophy. But the film is devilishly funny, economically constructed (the demise of Wikström’s marriage is shown in wordless images) and decked out in the director’s dismal palette of cobalt blue, moss green and burnt-marmalade orange. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJan 4, 2018
Dry, ironic humor is also one of the primary ingredients of The Other Side of Hope, and one of Kaurismäki’s signature elements. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughDec 6, 2017
More than an hour passes before Khaled and Wikström’s stories intersect, and though it would be an exaggeration to say each redeems the other, in this film the other side of hope is not despair, but decency. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoDec 6, 2017
What sticks with us in the end is something beyond the black humor and even Khaled’s sorrows — it’s the touching relationship between the two principals, and the Finnish man’s quiet commitment to doing what’s right. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 17, 2017
As long as Kaurismäki presents this tidy a vision (aesthetically and morally), he’ll continue to be an engagingly hermetic art-house curio impersonating an artist. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 30, 2017
In that respect, it may be self-conscious to a fault. Plotted with typical shagginess, it lags as it tries to treat its two protagonists equally; they may be kindred spirits, but Khaled’s fears of deportation and his search for Miriam are a lot more urgent than Wikström’s mid-life crisis. But in drawing the two men together, the film creates a simple, persuasive metaphor. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineClayton Dillard
The Other Side of Hope fulfills the vague sense of its aspirational title as a film limited in scope and led only by the guidance of its maker's skeptical positivity. Read full review
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