The tangle of family, business, and crime, with its resulting loyalties and betrayals, is the volatile stuff of which the drama is made.

| Jun 28, 2021

The outer boroughs in James Gray's New York are forlorn, and The Yards is a lament for a good-hearted white loser...

| Sep 16, 2020

It has a terrific subject, an unimprovable cast and a trio of trustworthy, even hip, producers. And no life.

| Nov 28, 2017

How "The Yards" shifts toward crime drama through character rather than pure plot is hard to disclose without divesting twists. Inspired by real-life scandal, James Gray lets personal insight color Shakespearean shenanigans of privilege, panic and power.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 15, 2010

An On the Waterfront wannabe, directed with a heavy portentousness that smothers the drama in a thick sauce of self-importance.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2008

Sem medo de evocar comparaes com "O Poderoso Chefo", Gray cria um filme repleto de personagens ambguos e uma forte atmosfera de tristeza e desesperana moral.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 9, 2007

...the filmmaker's use of dark visuals effectively matches the moody, almost operatic tone of the script.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 30, 2007

Understatement is something that one would not normally associate with such a pulpy tale, but that's what makes Gray's film surprisingly effective.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 14, 2007

I can't remember when a film so well-acted and so well-rendered visually was also so oppressive to sit through.

| Apr 27, 2007

Writer/director James Gray tells the story with an impressive urban palate.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2006

A sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story.

| Jun 24, 2006

Lacks the pizzazz of energetic pulp, but doesn't replace it with any compensatory insight or power.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 14, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2003

A very good film, and though obviously flawed, it does generate one form of elation: the feeling of seeing a young director stick to the guns of his tricky, ambitious material, and find the right people to tell his story.

| Original Score: B | Jan 10, 2003

Self-consciously elegiac, The Yards is a slow-burning but meticulously crafted family melodrama posing as a thriller.

| Dec 2, 2002

Atmospheric, worthy-but dull crime drama, with a largely wasted cast of greats.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 30, 2002

This is a story with Shakespeare-league themes -- greed, betrayal, graft, corruption. It's too much to expect Shakespeare-level dialogue, and we don't get it. But what we do get is pretty darned good.

| Oct 21, 2002

Though The Yards starts with a familiar crime plot, it becomes fascinating because of its characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2002

Despite Gray's insistence on lighting everything as if this were Don Corleone in a drawing room, The Yards remains a vacant lot.

| Mar 24, 2002