When depression hits, it’s just there. With Crimson Gold, Panahi demonstrates this concept while informing viewers about the nuances of Hussein’s life.

| Jun 15, 2023

En route, we see how few indignities are spared him, as well as how extravagant the hidden lives of this society's wealthiest are-their excesses alternately ignored and censured by authorities who can never be argued with, no matter how arbitrary...

| Jul 6, 2021

Crimson Gold demonstrated a craftiness and a canniness mingled with scruffiness that simmers, then sears. May Iran allow Panahi to someday make more such movies, the sooner, the better.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 2, 2021

One man's breaking point comes off as a stifled cry of collective revolt.

| Jun 28, 2021

[A] surprisingly tender tale of a frustrated working-class schnook.

| Jun 24, 2021

Never preachy, Crimson Gold reveals Hussein's life through his perspective and delivers a deeply upsetting, solid impact.

| Jun 24, 2021

Crimson Gold opens with a single-shot jewel heist gone wrong, then circles back to the origin story of the misguided thieves. It may bear the trappings of a Tarantino knockoff, but Crimson Gold possesses an incisive naturalism that is pure Panahi.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2021

The movie, an acute study of Iran's class structure and mores, will reveal it all to you in a series of episodes where Hussein often ends up eating the pie. A must-see.

| Jun 5, 2021

The film recounts the fate of a poor man in Tehran, a pizza delivery man, driven over the edge by official double standards, sadism and injustice.

| Feb 15, 2021

The film is equally psychological as it is political, we aren't just shown how he is discriminated against, we see his visceral reaction to it at every point, his struggle and the mounting resentment.

| May 16, 2020

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

The film's sociopolitical themes are all the more powerful for being subtly expressed through a starkly realistic tale.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 8, 2005

An incisive portrait of one man's quiet rage at, and heartbreakingly violent response to, social inequality.

| Original Score: A- | May 3, 2005

Brutal class realities in contemporary Iran

| Oct 2, 2004

an artful failure, a moped-fueled odyssey into dramatic weariness and monotony

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 30, 2004

...a slow-moving but ultimately intriguing character study.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 21, 2004

It settles into the typical reflective mode of Iranian films, but something is happening: A human being is slowly, sullenly, silently approaching his combustion point.

| Aug 13, 2004

Its cumulative power will smack viewers with all the force of a rattlesnake to the cheek.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 13, 2004

I'm glad I saw Crimson Gold. Watching it is like getting a peek behind the curtain.

Full Review | Aug 7, 2004

| Original Score: B | Aug 7, 2004