91
The film offers no answer, instead choosing to examine the conundrum of a man who repeatedly washes his face when things get too overwhelming, right before heading back out to the streets.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
A good example of how a charismatic figure doesn’t automatically generate a deep or compelling documentary.
75
Steve Hoover's documentary affords one an unusually intimate glance at the collapsed infrastructure of the former Soviet Union.
90
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
It’s a rich and complicated film.
67
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
The documentary gets repetitive as Mokhnenko does his thing over and over again. The promise of more keeps us engaged and the absence of it disappoints. This is too bad because when it works it is captivating.
70
Village Voice by Michael Nordine
Steve Hoover's film (which was executive-produced by Terrence Malick) doesn't feel dishonest in its behind-the-scenes glimpse at its subject.
80
Hoover’s style seems equally fit for a bleak documentary, suspenseful thriller, black comedy, dystopian sci-fi nightmare and grisly horror film.
70
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
Almost Holy captures something meaningfully urgent in the brutal day-to-day of tough love amid a world of tougher indifference.
63
This Ukrainian Crocodile Preacher makes an arresting subject, someone you’ll want to meet just to hear his story and see the past that put him on the path to being his country’s “Catcher in the Rye,” saving children from an ugly world and a doomed future.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
Hoover doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty of the kids’ detox and rehabilitation, but Mokhnenko’s compassion is as evident as his self-regard, and inextricable from his sense of a moral imperative.