75
Johnny Ma's Old Stone is a lean, nasty entry in a subgenre that could be termed the bureaucratic noir.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
Defying its somewhat generic-sounding title, Johnny Ma's gripping criminal thriller Old Stone deploys powerful performances and eerie imagery.
67
Too obvious and haphazard to boil over with the full caustic fury of its premise, Old Stone is nevertheless a bluntly effective thriller that makes great use of its gritty noir touches.
75
The ending, while not inapt, also delves into a realm of cinematic overstatement that the movie had up until that time been careful to avoid. While disappointing, it doesn’t wholly mitigate the power of what has come before. This is an engrossing and unnerving film.
70
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Mr. Ma paints a persuasively bleak scene that could use more psychological and philosophical nuance to go with its painstaking grimness.
58
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
It’s too bad that the movie shifts from having too little juice to having too much, because there are hints of a more compelling middle ground.
80
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
[A] stunningly assured, darkly gripping first feature.
75
The Seattle Times by Soren Andersen
Director Ma has made a quietly merciless picture, a horror movie, really, about a decent man, an ordinary man, left alone, bereft, embittered, ruined by his act of decency.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer by Tirdad Derakhshani
Lean, mean, and utterly compelling, Ma’s beautifully paced and remarkably understated 80-minute thriller Old Stone is a Kafkaesque satire about the soul-crushing effects of bureaucracy.
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Walter Addiego
While this final segment is the least satisfying, it’s impossible not to be impressed with what Ma accomplishes in the film’s brisk 80 minutes.