In Clio Barnard's realist Bradford-set drama, love between a Bengali-British property owner and an older classroom assistant is complicated, but powerful.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 19, 2024

Barnard has made an ode to the beauty of messy, imperfect lives and their ability to converge at improbably perfect moments. Maybe it ends a beat too soon, but then so do some of your favorite songs.

| Aug 4, 2022

What’s most satisfying about the movie is getting to know Ali and Ava separately. They’re endowed with warmth, depth and believability by Akhtar and Rushbrook, veteran supporting actors who are rarely cast in leading roles.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 2, 2022

In its understated way, the movie is a celebration of the miracle of connection.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 29, 2022

Its two protagonists initially seem like unlikely leads, but they embody a grounded emotional warmth that feels genuine.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 29, 2022

This understated indie film clings uncomfortably to the surface of their relationship, yet still delivers something pure, melodic and precise.

| Jul 28, 2022

There’s an authenticity to Ali & Ava’s unshowy love story that hits deeper because it’s a drama that really could belong to anyone.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 5, 2022

In the end this is a heart-warming film about seizing that second chance in life and not letting go.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 1, 2022

However long it takes the characters to put their feelings into action, there’s no mistaking the warm, teasing chemistry between Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook, who star as Ali and Ava respectively.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 30, 2022

A pair of wonderfully winning performances from Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar lie at the heart of this unexpectedly warm and typically compelling drama from British writer-director Clio Barnard.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 6, 2022

Unusually for a film in this tradition, it makes almost no economic or political references either, staying committed to its own world. The optimism is endearing, though.

| Mar 4, 2022

Barnard’s script is crammed with humour and unexpected details.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2022

Most viewers will get on okay with Ali & Ava, which has moments of passing beauty in Ole Bratt Birkeland’s cinematography, of blurred lights through rain on ambient night drives.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2022

A tender tale with two brilliant leads, and one of Barnard’s finest films to date.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 3, 2022

Akhtar and Rushbrook give crystalline performances, their characters looking at each other and seeing the chance to be their own whole selves.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 3, 2022

A compassionate and tenderly performed love story, with a musical current coursing through it. British cinema is lucky to have Clio Barnard.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2022

With a certain sense of whimsy and an exceptional ability to tell a unique love story, writer-director Clio Barnard gives two lost souls a new chance at romance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 27, 2021

The performances make this worthwhile.

| Sep 23, 2021

Akhtar imbues Ali with such an aliveness, an electric joyfulness teetering on the edge of sorrow, that he is a whole enough character to fill any unintentional gaps.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 23, 2021

You wish this couple well; you wish them a future together where there will be song, and happiness.

| Sep 20, 2021