70
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinAndini and her collaborators, especially lead actor Happy Salma, offer a precisely calibrated, emotionally nuanced exploration of one woman going through a mid-life crisis in rural Indonesia during the 1960s that both looks and sounds stunning thanks to above-and-beyond craft contributions.
- 90Film ThreatBobby LePireFilm ThreatBobby LePireIt’s beautiful and heartbreaking in equal measure.
- 80VarietyMichael NordineVarietyMichael NordineBefore, Now & Then moves with its own dreamy cadence, with narrative developments washing over the film like waves. Closing your eyes once it’s over, you might even experience the sensation of having been in the water all afternoon as those gentle waves lapped over you — and longing to return to them.
- 78Paste MagazineJacob OllerPaste MagazineJacob OllerViolence, political strife, marital problems—the world keeps on turning, but Before, Now & Then explores what’s needed to hold steady through it all.
- 75The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorDrawing a number of deeply felt performances from her cast, it is an aching period piece, if frankly staid, that comes complete with many of the genre’s most reliable tropes: sharp intakes of breath; glances stolen through laced curtains; and love, as ever, in opprobrium.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreBefore, Now & Then is a dreamy Indonesian drama about changing expectations and ideas of “freedom” that pass through the life of a Muslim woman through twenty years of her life.
- 60Screen DailyWendy IdeScreen DailyWendy IdeIt’s a handsomely mounted period piece, which acknowledges the strength required by previous generations of Indonesian women to rise above the patriarchal demands of a restrictive society. But the storytelling, by writer and director Kamila Andini, is exceptionally slow and can be rather laboured in the points that it makes.
- 50The New York TimesDevika GirishThe New York TimesDevika GirishIt’s a pity for both Salma and Basuki, whose expressive faces convey depths of feeling that the script and direction cannot quite match.