60
Screen International by Allan Hunter
The feature debut of Vladimir De Fontenay is an accomplished piece with a committed central performance from Imogen Poots, but the emotional impact is lessened by an air of predictability and the sense that every bit of fresh hope is destined to end in disappointment.
50
The New York Times by Bilge Ebiri
This is an atmospheric, well-acted film that leaves us mostly cold.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Brad Wheeler
The result is a metaphor run amok, with a limp plot, implausible action and three barely sketched characters played drearily.
58
The Playlist by Bradley Warren
It’s a very watchable — if occasionally frustrating— first effort, but one hopes that the director will carve out more original territory with his second film, regardless of where he settles.
50
RogerEbert.com by Nick Allen
There’s a big meaning to all of this, and yet the movie can’t eloquently express it, even though the metaphor is in the title.
60
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
While the story’s a little shaky, Poots is outstanding; and de Fontenay has a terrific eye for the details of a drifter’s life, shuffling from hovel to hovel, never able to scrape up enough cash to sleep comfortably.
40
Variety by Peter Debruge
This is a dour and deeply unpleasant film that wears its gritty realism as a badge of honor, while failing to recognize the motivations that explain such behavior in reality, which makes him neither an attentive journalist nor a particularly good storyteller (at least not yet).
75
Movie Nation by Roger Moore
Director de Fontenay has a great eye for detail — filling Mobile Homes with inside cock-fighting particulars and manufactured housing factory work, roadhouses and after hours “clubs” where the chicken fighting takes place.
80
L.A. Weekly by Sam Weisberg
In Vladimir de Fontenay’s Mobile Homes, Imogen Poots gives a performance of such multifaceted distinction that it might be hard to believe you’re watching the same actress from frame to frame.
40
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
This unflinching yet compassionate depiction of marginalized misfits boasts a few pleasingly poetic flourishes, but it suffers from some common first-time director flaws, notably a listless narrative, thinly developed characters and a relentlessly somber mood.