Django

Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl

Django expresses, via the language of film genre, not what Reinhardt’s life was but what it might have felt like.

The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg

The finale enlivens an otherwise staid biopic, but whether the film has earned a moment of uplift is unclear.

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

Django deserves credit for refusing to fit its subject into the straightjacket of a survival tale, and Ketab’s expressive turn — much of which is captured in close-ups — provides the story with a richness that the writing struggles to achieve on its own.

The Film Stage by Ed Frankl

While Kateb is a fine presence, Colmar (a co-writer of the far superior Of Gods and Men) directs with none of his protagonist’s thrilling pizazz, and his and Salatko’s script plods without any of jazz’s syncopated rhythms

Screen International by Jonathan Romney

Unimpeachably honest intentions and a solid, laid-back lead performance by star Reda Kateb mean that at least the film won’t be derided as Django Untuned.

The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer

This semi-fictionalized account rings false whenever it eschews reality for a WWII cloak-and-dagger intrigue, trying too hard to dazzle us with plot instead of letting the music speak for itself.

Slant Magazine by Kenji Fujishima

The film's most crucial shortcoming lies in its failure to illuminate both the inner life of its subject and his artistic genius.

The Playlist by Kimber Myers

When Reinhardt’s fingers aren’t dancing across guitar strings, it has all the vitality of an educational film shown by a substitute teacher. It comes alive in those fleeting moments, but they are too infrequent to keep audiences engaged.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

There is something frustratingly subdued and constrained dramatically about this slow and unsyncopated film, which indulges in quite a few cliches about wartime Paris.

Variety by Peter Debruge

The film — while not an especially compelling or well-told biopic unto itself — shines much-needed attention on the plight of the Roma people at the hands of German (and French) officials.