Master Gardener
critic Reviews
, 70% Fresh Tomatometer Score- Master Gardener suggests Paul Schrader might need to find a new patch of creative soil to till, but some strong performances make it difficult to dismiss.
- , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreMurtada ElfadlAV Club
Master Gardener supposedly has a contemporary setting. Yet it feels out of time, or belonging to a long gone era. Part of that is the profession of its lead character, and part is Mrs. Haverhill. Both seem like relics from another time and place.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreTara BradyIrish Times
The scale of ideas is big. American social and racial frictions are entertainingly engaged as we work our way towards a shoot-em-up denouement. At 76, more than 20 films into his storied career, Paul Schrader can still deliver a sucker punch.
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreTim CogshellFilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
Paul Schrader wants me to forgive [this character]. No, I don't forgive him. And this is just sloppy filmmaking.
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreLinda MarricThe Jewish Chronicle
I wish Master Gardener had the wit and courage of Schrader ’s earlier works, instead of relying on some half-baked ideas about masculinity, race and age-gap romance
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreWendy IdeObserver (UK)
The weakest of Schrader’s stories foregrounding strong, silent, troubled men.
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreLarushka Ivan-ZadehDaily Mail (UK)
The atmosphere is initially alluring yet, as the violence begins, this becomes not the film you'd naturally expect or desire — a stiff, stilted drama.
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreDamon WiseDeadline Hollywood Daily
We’re left with an unsatisfyingly weird love story that catches the eye but somehow doesn’t quite make emotional sense, much like Mrs Haverhill’s fantastic but distracting jellyfish wallpaper.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreNadine WhitneyThe Curb
Like many of Schrader’s works it will divide audiences – for those who have enjoyed the late era of the director’s filmography Master Gardener delivers what has come to be expected. Nihilism, optimism, romance – a strange and heady combination.
Read full article - , Rotten Tomatometer ScoreIlan PreskovskyChannel24 (South Africa)
As a character piece, Schrader has already done this much better before: despite Edgerton's perfectly calibrated performance, Narvel Roth is no Travis Bickle.
Read full article - , Fresh Tomatometer ScoreJim RossTAKE ONE Magazine
Thematically, what MASTER GARDENER espouses – if anything – about redemption is an open question. […] If anything, the film is more interested in probing the tension between those cultivation metaphors and the hate-filled imagery on Narvel’s body.”
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