In Housekeeping for Beginners, a ramshackle family reel from the loss of one of their members and try to find unity amongst the stifling chaos of grief.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 3, 2024

Housekeeping for Beginners is Stolevski’s most intimate look at a family or family-like unit, but, for me, it’s his least engaging film by a long shot.

| May 21, 2024

Stolevski's screenplay lurches from drama to drama you would expect in a large house filled with a collective thrown together by the social conditions of contemporary Europe.

| May 13, 2024

A shambolic household takes shape as a family in a trial by fire all the sweeter for its transformative heat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2024

The film’s ensemble cast is uniformly strong, including tiny Dzada Selim as kindergartener Mia, raucous yet wise beyond her years.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 9, 2024

Stolevski is performing a highwire act with Housekeeping for Beginners balancing comedy, drama, and careful commentary. Love is expressed in so many ways… vibrant and lovely – an expression of devotion and solidarity.

| May 8, 2024

Another triumph from a young filmmaker whose reputation only gets more stellar with each effort.

| Apr 26, 2024

The emotions, violence, humor and warmth all come through beautifully, without an ounce of sentimentality, making everything that transpires believable and heartfelt and making the film one of the better ones I’ve seen so far this year.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2024

Stolevski's chaotic third feature features rich characters, relentless energy, and an intimacy that usually accompanies a muted environment. Exceptional performances by Anamaria Marinca, Vladimir Tintor, and newcomer Samson Selim, who steals the show.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 21, 2024

A real slice of life drama, HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS proves a steady stream of unfortunate events caused by an escalating sense of being trapped despite their "prison" being the one place that actually gives them freedom.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 19, 2024

A gorgeously messy and humane portrait of a found family.

| Apr 17, 2024

It’s well done but lays on the trauma narrative pretty thickly.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 16, 2024

Housekeeping for Beginners carries forward a notably subversive, queer gestalt.

| Apr 16, 2024

“Housekeeping for Beginners” unfolds in a very organic way. There are no random prose dumps to explain characters’ backstories or provide broader context. You will have to deduce what is happening from the way people interact.

| Apr 15, 2024

In lesser hands, this chaos might tumble into melodrama or farce. But Stolevski’s actors deliver such naturalistic performances, and he writes such specific dialogue...

| Apr 12, 2024

Well intentioned, but ultimately self-defeating, the queer family custody drama Housekeeping for Beginners tries to look at a well known, melodramatic plot from a different perspective, but ends up doing curiously little with it.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Apr 12, 2024

Housekeeping for Beginners doesn't need to say or explain much to make its point.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2024

The Macedonian setting adds a culturally specific twist allowing for more shades and layers for these people. It is familiar (the character arcs and growth are exactly what’s expected), although it feels fresh and blisteringly real with a stellar ensemble

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 12, 2024

“Housekeeping for Beginners” is a true family film, celebrating the difficulties of forming a necessary unit with others to withstand life’s struggles.

Full Review | Apr 12, 2024

By the end, we’ve soaked up something of modern Macedonia and had our own cultural standards put to the rack.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 11, 2024