Reviews for this film from our members:
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: It’s an important story, and Stewart’s personal passion for telling it is not only palpable and admirable, but frequently translates into emotional, engaging cinema. The scenes that work — and there are many — render the overall unevenness of the production all the more bewildering.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ Spirituality & Practice
- Excerpt: A cogent and clear-headed drama that will stir you to human rights advocacy.
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: while the subject is certainly worthy, the film is rather pedestrian.
- Andy Crump @ Paste Magazine
- Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
- M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
- Excerpt: As the shrewdly observant and hilarious host of the late-night show, [John] Stewart is all-too familiar with the thin line between fiction and reality, where people refuse to see sarcasm and parody is born from human foolishness, not some clever disguise masking a deeper truth or stance. In ‘Rosewater,’ Stewart proves himself as outstanding in exposing the rash, absurd rigmarole behind the camera as he is in front, astutely pointing out the inanity of [Maziar] Bahari’s imprisonment while also showing the journalist’s will to survive.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: On paper, the story is extraordinary. By way of Stewart’s execution, it’s far from that.
- Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk Online
- Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘The Daily Show’ host Jon Stewart’s feature directorial debut, ‘Rosewater,’ is an imperfect but stirring story of a journalist’s unjust detention in Iran.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Relevant and insidious, acknowledging both the cost of oppression and the absurdity of totalitarian regimes.
- Dustin Jansick @ Way Too Indie
- Excerpt: An uneven but easy to swallow tale of a captured journalist.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: Jon Stewart’s first film is passionate and principled, as I expected, but also hopeful, almost serene, and even gently amusing, which I did not.
- Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: First time director Jon Stewart manages to have both the interrogator and torture victim make fun of New Jersey.
- Oktay Kozak @ Oregon Herald
- Ross Miller @ Thoughts On Film
- Excerpt: An altogether compelling, shocking, complex and important portrait of a recent injustice that deserves to be told and shouldn’t be forgotten.
- Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: Stewart has a weapon in his hands and he clearly knows how to use it. This politically engaged and shrewdly satirical debut by Stewart shows much promise.
- Stefan Pape @ HeyUGuys
- Kristy Puchko @ Cinema Blend
- Excerpt: Rosewater is a competent political drama and a noteworthy first feature. However, without that smile and wink that Stewart as a TV personality is so known for, the film feels a bit too much like a well-intentioned but dry civics lesson.
- Sarah Ward @ artsHub
