Gordon’s performance conveys something else that’s all too rare in movies of musicians—namely, joy. It’s a serene and lofty joy, with an element of wry detachment and even self-deprecation built in, but it’s vitally present nonetheless.

| Feb 16, 2024

‘Round Midnight succeeds as a composite of jazz and its tormented originators thanks to the inspired casting and improvisational skills of real-life bebop musician Dexter Gordon.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 28, 2022

The beacon of ’Round Midnight is Dexter Gordon’s performance.

| May 20, 2022

Though I think Dale sometimes has a whiff of the inscrutable Magical Negro, Gordon plays him with so much charm and nuance that he becomes fully fleshed-out character. And by God, the music!

| Dec 9, 2021

Romantic without being sentimental, the picture has a marvelous look and sound and feel.

| Oct 27, 2021

A wonderfully detailed performance by a real jazz musician, Dexter Gordon.

| Oct 27, 2021

Watching Dale and Francis grow close is a subdued experience that evolves in quiet ways.

| Dec 12, 2018

Wonderful offbeat homage to be-bop.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 30, 2015

Dexter Gordon received a Best Actor nomination and Herbie Hancock the Original Score Music Oscar for this moody jazz piece anout an alcoholic musician down on his luck.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 2, 2010

He's not just writing about a dying old man, he's writing about jazz.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2008

Tavernier's striking widescreen frame established the rainy, neon-and-smoke filled world of the jazz film.

| Jul 25, 2008

Round Midnight is a superbly crafted music world drama in which Gallic director Bertrand Tavernier pays a moving dramatic tribute to the great black musicians who lived and performed in Paris in the late 1950s.

| Apr 8, 2008

One of the best jazz films ever made, this succeeds by melding French sensibilities about atmosphere with American sensibilities about the music.

| Apr 8, 2008

The director's perenially heavy mood seems especially well suited to this indigo-shaded story of a black American saxman (Dexter Gordon) living and performing in Paris in the late 50s.

| Apr 8, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 25, 2007

Dale Turner, as played by Dexter Gordon, seems to be an amalgam of Bud Powell and Lester Young, but the private, rueful dignity that he brings to bear is all his own.

| Jun 24, 2006

It's a brooding yet warm elegy, as plaintive as a slow, low-toned ballad in a minor key.

| Apr 5, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 12, 2004

The film's quality lies not just in its vivid portrayal of the bebop milieu, but also in its sensitive examination of the turbulent forces within an artist compelled to create on a nightly basis, despite personal consequences.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 30, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 4, 2003