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Ain't Them Bodies Saints (15)

Crime, Drama, Romance

The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met.


The critical consensus

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a thoughtful mood-piece that adds up to more than the usual outlaw story; it haunts the mind like the half-forgotten folk-song the title suggests.

****(*)Eddie Harrison, The List, 16/08/2013

The film has a haunting quality that allows it to linger in the mind, and leaves us with a sense that Lowery has great work in his future.

****(*)Philip Concannon, The Skinny, 02/09/2013

Slow-burning, swoony and spare, but lacking in dramatic urgency.

***(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 01/09/2013

An initially captivating but finally trying attempt at resuscitating the glory-glory days of the ’70s by a talented director who needs to find his own voice.

***(*)(*)Ian Nathan, Empire Online

It's a poignant story of sundered love, earnest and intense, without being exactly tragic, and although writer-director David Lowery interestingly refuses certain romantic cliches, you wonder if he knows exactly where he's going with the narrative. Strong performances from Mara and Affleck.

***(*)(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 05/09/2013

Mara's hunted-deer eyes and Affleck's quavery sing-song voice are just right for keeping our judgment off-balance and our senses on guard.

****(*)The Independent, 06/09/2013

It’s impassioned filmmaking, and bodes well for a more original vision from Lowery further down the line.

***(*)(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 07/09/2013

Not quite the new American classic it strives to be, but one you’ll want to revisit.

****(*)Adam Woodward, Little White Lies, 06/09/2013

Lowery focuses on melancholy moods, inner turmoil and the golden glow of cornfields to create an earnest, leisurely tale of lost souls and last chances.

***(*)(*)Allan Hunter, Daily Express, 06/09/2013

On the evidence of Ain't Them Bodies Saints, while the western may not be alive and kicking, its ghosts still haunt the landscape of modern cinema, drifting across the misty screens of the 21st century like a distant song – half forgotten, yet still remembered, and very much loved.

****(*)Mark Kermode, The Observer, 08/09/2013


Features about Ain't Them Bodies Saints (15)

Interview: David Lowery, director of Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Eddie Harrison, The List, 04/09/2013

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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