one Star is a richly and densely achieved movie that gets a lot of storytelling done in two and a quarter hours; it is thoughtful and complex and grownup.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 15, 2024

John Sayles’s Lone Star is among the most literary films ever made.

| Jan 24, 2024

Sayles is able to touch on the humanity of each [character] and the details of the region -- the heat, the beautiful but often unforgiving landscape, and especially the pride of the residents -- are vivid and true.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2023

A large-ensemble mystery of a scope far greater than the mere question of whodunit.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2023

As a graveyard of forgotten dreams spawns a truly revolutionary vision of the future, it's clear that it is precisely Sayles' willingness to confront myth, reality and responsibility... that makes Lone Star a film of such grandeur.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 6, 2023

This brilliant film, the year's best so far, has the feel of a novel, but what... John Sayles has really created is epic cinematic poetry. It's resplendent with border-town atmosphere, heated by torrid weather and searing emotions.

| Sep 6, 2023

John Sayles' Lone Star contains so many riches, it humbles ordinary movies. And yet they aren't thrown before us, to dazzle and impress: It is only later, thinking about the film, that we appreciate the full reach of its material.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 6, 2023

I can't stress enough the excellence of Sayles' script... He packs an incredible number of supporting characters and telling vignettes into a story that contains real tension, genuine romance and stunning surprises.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 6, 2023

Sayles takes us deep into the heart of Texas darkness and, by extension, into our nation's con dieted heritage. That he does so with such literate intelligence, subtle humor and implacable humanism is what makes Lone Star invaluable.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 6, 2023

It might be overstating things to declare that entertainment values have finally been introduced to a Sayles picture. But this time, at least, you can appreciate his film without having to work too hard.

| Sep 6, 2023

Thanks to a stupendous screenplay, each member of the cast is vividly drawn.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2023

Sayles is a meditative storyteller, with a tendency to mute melodrama rather than letting it wail. But he is also one of the few filmmakers still ferreting out the strangeness and anxiety hidden beneath our poses of ordinariness.

| Sep 6, 2023

Lone Star is a rich, rewarding picture for people who enjoy small stories played out in a big way.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2023

A few quibbles aside, Lone Star is a movie that will stay with you for a long time. Its a remarkable look at how every generation tries to move on, but how sometimes the shadows of the past just pull you back.

| Sep 6, 2023

I saw Lone Star a month ago, and have found that it is one of those rare, rich films that grows in the memory. Without question, it is among the best movies of the year.

| Sep 6, 2023

It's a carefully crafted, unapologetically literary accomplishment, and, for many, this fact alone will be enough to recommend it. So why, then, does it feel so lifeless?

| Sep 6, 2023

Kris Kristofferson makes a powerful impression as the corrupt, bigoted Sheriff Charley Wade. And Malthew McConaughey, although he essentially appears in just one scene, does an indelible turn as the fabled Buddy Deeds.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 6, 2023

Nobody in Lone Star talks in any thing resembling human speech -- they're too busy pushing the narrative around and lecturing one another on the evil arbitrariness of boundaries.

| Sep 6, 2023

As with most of Sayles films, the performances effect a kind of subdued naturalism. Cooper plays Sam with a matter-of-factness that belies the turmoil inside.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2023

Sayles has surrounded his hero with other, more interesting characters and has warmed Lone Star with the glow of a humanist optimism rare in contemporary movies.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 6, 2023