75
But that’s also the movie’s charm, painting a world where all you need is talent, a little luck and a couple of shoulders to cry on when things get tough. It’s a stripped-down “A Star Is Born” — without the rehab and suicide.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
63
RogerEbert.com by Carlos Aguilar
In the end, the neatly wrapped resolution amounts to a sense of incompleteness, like a concert that leaves you waiting for an encore.
63
The Associated Press by Jake Coyle
Yellow Rose sings an affecting, sorrowful and defiant song where dreams collide with a cruel reality.
75
Paragas’ film finds fresh ground to explore the price and the power of the American dream, bolstered by country crooning and heartbreaking (and very real) legal worries. It’s a concept that might sound played out, but deft directing and a number of strong performances recommend it, a down-home answer to the similarly charming 2018 drama “Wild Rose.”
75
Chicago Tribune by Katie Walsh
Yellow Rose is an emotional blunt instrument. It’s not exactly subtle, but then again, the best country songs, and the best coming-of-age tales, rarely are.
60
The New York Times by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim
Above all, the music has the greatest staying power — it is the film’s saving grace, just like it is Rose’s during her darkest days.
58
The A.V. Club by Lawrence Garcia
Yellow Rose may not be a success on the whole, but it does suggest that Paragas, like her protagonist, is still finding her way.
70
Like Andrew Ahn’s “Driveways” earlier this year, Yellow Rose is ultimately a film about kindness. The world can be cruel, but the film’s characters tend not to be. Group those movies with Sundance prize-winner “Minari,” and audiences have three terrific indies about growing up Asian in America — although this is the only one that sets the experience to music.
75
Casting Salonga, a singing actress best known for Disney’s animated “Mulan,” and not letting her sing is a cheat. But Watson is a laid-back delight and makes Rose’s odyssey make sense musically and emotionally.