The Perfect Candidate
critic Reviews
, 93% Certified Fresh Tomatometer Score- A message movie admirable for its subtlety as well as its execution, The Perfect Candidate faces oppression and powerfully advocates for change.
- , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreAmy NicholsonFilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
It really liked it. It's not a doom and gloom movie -- it's about "how can you use your influence?"
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreClaudia PuigFilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
What I appreciated about this was the subtleties -- she's doing things in small victories.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreAnn HornadayWashington Post
Mansour gives audiences a candid, often wryly amusing glimpse of life inside the Saudi kingdom, which is so often cloaked in opacity and menace.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreTomris LafflyRogerEbert.com
The Perfect Candidate lacks a distinct visual grammar ... but as a film that recognizes the giant strides small wins can make for women, it feels significant.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreAnthony LaneNew Yorker
The pleasure of the film rests not in the plot, which is so placid as to be anti-dramatic, but in the minutiae; as ever, Al Mansour homes in on the everyday workings of condescension and conformity.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreJocelyn NoveckAssociated Press
Most of the value in this film comes from the peek it gives us into life as a Saudi woman - a life that is changing, Al-Mansour points out, albeit too slowly for some.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreBrian SusbiellesInSession Film
With The Perfect Candidate, she has made some rumbles but puts on a perfect platform for the rights of women in such a restrictive country for the modern century.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreLoren KingNewport This Week (RI)
[Haifaa Al-Mansour] delivers a razor-sharp look at women's lives in modern Saudi Arabia.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScorePeter MartinScreenAnarchy
Featuring finely-tuned characters and pitched to a degree of outrage that I found completely engaging
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreHannah BrownJerusalem Post
Al-Mansour has struck gold again with her leading lady. Mila Al Zahrani, who appears in nearly every second of the film, has a strong but elegant screen presence and she makes the heroine an extremely appealing character.
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