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Movies / Upcoming / The Secret of the Grain
The Secret of the Grain

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The Secret of the Grain (2008)

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92 %
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Reviews Counted: 39

Fresh: 36

Rotten:3

Average Rating: 7.7/10

Consensus: A complex portrait of an immigrant family, The Secret of the Grain is a sprawling, intimate film with many fine performances.

Rated: Not Rated

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:2007

Starring: Sabrina Ouazani

Starring: Sabrina Ouazani

Director: Abdel Kechiche

Director: Abdel Kechiche
Studio: IFC Films

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Reviews for The Secret of the Grain

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Time stretches out to the limits of endurance, Slimane's and ours, and there are moments toward the conclusion of this picture when you will want to scream and throw things at the screen, but it's mesmerizing. When it does end, suddenly, it feels a little

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
06/13/09
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
05/07/09
Dan Zak
Washington Post
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

Despite some strong performances from the mostly amateur cast, as well as some intriguing insights into family dysfunctions and racial prejudice, the movie still comes across as being self-indulgent and at least a little disappointing.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
04/17/09
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Everyone figures in a masterfully paced final act that's hypnotic, genuinely suspenseful and emotionally complex.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
03/20/09
Stan Hall
Oregonian

Writer-director Abdel Kechiche has wrought a definitive statement on how it feels to live in a subculture.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
03/13/09
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

The Secret of the Grain takes one man, his children, their spouses and babies, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, her daughter, and his friends and turns it all into a masterpiece about the strange power of food -- to heal, unite, exasperate.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/19/09
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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A long but always engaging movie, intimately framed and exuberantly acted by a mixed cast of amateurs and professionals.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
01/30/09
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Rather than observing this family, we feel we are part of it, and that draws us in as nothing else can.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/29/09
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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The French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche is that rare thing at the movies these days: an intelligent humanist.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
01/29/09
Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly

The wonderful thing about Hafsia Herzi in The Secret of the Grain...is the way she and the character tiptoe around the story's edges for a while, taking their time and easing onto the audience's radar.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
01/23/09
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
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The Secret of the Grain never slows, always engages, may continue too long, but ends too soon. It is made of life itself.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/22/09
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Before you scoff at yet another benevolent look at a family straddling two cultures, Kechiche subtly subverts the genre.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
01/12/09
Kent Turner
Film-Forward.com

I wish The Secret of the Grain had another title, something that conveys the vibrancy teeming in this great drama of daily life -- something less grainy.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
01/07/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[Director] Kechiche digs a good story out of the flux, and, in the movie’s final forty minutes, the suspense is terrific.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
01/05/09
David Denby
New Yorker
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Secret Of The Grain is more complicated than it sounds, less geared toward uplift than in revealing the fault-lines within this sprawling, multi-generational family and between their immigrant culture and their French hosts.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
12/29/08
Scott Tobias
AV Club

The Secret of the Grain is one of the most remarkable films of 2008, in part because it masterfully extends certain sequences not only to let them play out before our eyes but also to invite reflection even as the film is still running.

Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | comment Comment
12/25/08
Robert Davis
Paste Magazine

A robust drama about and old man with a dream who is helped by a smart teenager and his large Franco-Arab family.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
12/24/08
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

The cast is solid, with standout performances by first-timer Habib Boufares as Slimane.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
12/24/08
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The richness of The Secret of the Grain lies in the close, tireless, enthusiastic attention it pays to the most mundane daily tasks.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
12/24/08
A.O. Scott
New York Times
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