Wish I Was Here is definitely a flawed film, but it’s themes are relevant and it’s emotional beats are still heartfelt.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 19, 2024

Those Big Moments can represent catharsis, however, only to a viewer already on Braff’s wavelength. Otherwise, they merely strike audience members (including myself) as self-indulgent, even silly. And that’s probably all right with Braff.

| Mar 14, 2023

Zach Braff's Kickstarter-funded dramedy is a self indulgent therapy session.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 22, 2021

For every scene that rings emotionally true-and there are quite a few of them-there is another that feels forced.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

By the end of the film, I felt like Wish I Was Here was trying to spoonfeed the audience hipster wisdom.

| Jan 22, 2021

Perfect? Nah. Even better.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 27, 2020

Wish I Was Here is heartbreakingly beautiful and touchingly funny...a kind of post-modern Generation X film. Think Reality Bites filtered through the 20/20 hindsight of The Big Chill.

| Jul 18, 2020

Although there is an unevenness to the story in terms of thematic elements, [Zach] Braff hits some emotional highs but truly excels with not only his casting but the technical elements and considerations, most notably Lawrence Sher's cinematography.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 14, 2019

Overall, Wish I Was Here is beautiful, touching and sensitive without over-exaggerating its dramas.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 20, 2019

Braff's sophomore effort arrives with a thud, another cog in the new American independent film machine, where it's degree of visibility makes it not quite indie and not quite mainstream, somewhere in the milquetoast middle.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 30, 2019

The film has thoughtful things to say about life and the importance of family, and overall is funny and enjoyable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2019

Strikes a curious balance of having too much to say and yet saying nothing at all.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 3, 2019

This is just a simple, endearing slice-of-life dramedy. The acting is outstanding and the script is beautifully written.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 12, 2018

A mean streak runs down the middle of this movie, and Braff does not wear it well.

| Aug 22, 2018

The Braff brothers tried to say something in Wish I Was Here about the commitment and faith that hold families 
together. But their hesitancy allows the message to dissolve into the overall banality of the movie.

| Jan 12, 2018

Wish I Was Here is a warm, intimate and dry comedy-drama.

| Sep 8, 2017

OK, so not a lot happens, but what does is honest, liberally-laced with Jewish humour and heart-felt in a way anyone with a family will understand.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 18, 2017

Sixty percent hipster indie art house junk, and forty percent actual substance that's worth watching.

| Jul 21, 2017

All in all, a good summer movie.

| Oct 26, 2016

Unfortunately, the film spends so much time trying to define itself, we're never allowed to immerse ourselves into the experience.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 21, 2016