80
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Mr. Carpignano has a shrewd sense not only of the character’s psychology, but also of the audience’s expectations, and our tendency to confuse realism with magical thinking.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
A Ciambra is at its best when Carpignano captures the textures of everyday life, suggesting the neorealists with his use of nonprofessional actors and on-location shooting.
67
Sorely lacking the energy that made “Mediterranea” such a vital shot in the arm, A Ciambra is a half-step backward for Carpignano, whose clear sense of place is too often hampered by shapeless plot.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Overall, Pio's accelerated passage from adolescence to adulthood is depicted with moving honesty and sensitivity.
63
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
First the film inhabits the eye of a storm—which is to say, the storm of Italy’s wretched peripheries—before submitting to the more ersatz cinematic will of filling Pio’s life with beginnings, middles, and ends.
70
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Emily Yoshida
The film treads familiar territory when it’s trying to carve cinema-worthy myth from its semi-fictitious protagonist’s life, but its more impressionistic, painterly moments are what feel truly fresh.
60
Creatively speaking, however, A Ciambra is something of a step sideways for the Italian-American filmmaker, consolidating his considerable formal and observational gifts while fumbling a bit as storytelling.
75
The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic
While it makes its point half-way into its running time and you start getting the anxious jitters of a film that overstays its welcome, A Ciambra serves the fundamental cinematic purpose of transporting you to another world.
75
The Film Stage by Rory O'Connor
One of the great achievements of A Ciambra is how it maps out the food chain of local authorities (both legal and otherwise).
70
Screen International by Tim Grierson
A Ciambra may be a conventional tale of a young man trying to find himself, but the writer-director’s attention to detail enriches that setup.