98% Mud

All Critics (91) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (2)

"Mud" isn't just a movie. It's the firm confirmation of a career.

"Mud" unfolds at its own pace, revealing its story in slivers. The performances are outstanding, especially from Sheridan, who plays tough, sweet, vulnerable and confused with equal conviction.

The film is drenched in the humidity and salty air of a Delta summer, often recalling the musical, aphoristic cadences of Sam Shepard, who happens to appear in a supporting role.

A wonderful, piquant modern-day variation on "Huckleberry Finn.''

One of the most creatively rich and emotionally rewarding movies to come along this year.

It's a movie that holds out hope for the movies' future.

I liked Mud. What's frustrating is feeling as if I could have loved it.

It's a lovely, coherent piece of storytelling, with a unique sense of place. Nichols has carved out a niche as a distinctive film-maker.

With Mud, Jeff Nichols demonstrates once again that he's that rare breed of filmmaker who prefers to bury himself in the dirt of rural America rather than carve his initials into the concrete of sprawling urbanity.

Nichols weaves it all together with consummate skill and a little black pepper.

It's rare that films manage to capture the actual experience of what it is like to be a child, but 'Mud' seems to nail the ethos.

Mud is a captivating drama with well-rounded characters and fantastic performances from its three leads.

...a respectful, storyteller's approach to rural America. No mockery, no Hollywood-knows-better, no nonsense. That kind of thing is in shorter supply than the universe's collective desire for McConaughey to return to rom-coms.

Jeff Nichols' script for Mud is a lot like the Mississippi River that serves as a backdrop for the tale of unrequited love. There are times it is big and powerful and other times when it becomes so serene it's easy to forget the depths that hide below.

Mud combines the poignance of a boy coming to terms with life's realities with the excitement of top-notch suspense.

This densely atmospheric film could have used more Mark Twain-like adventure and less dreary adult intrigue.

...a movie about relationships that are tenuous and inescapable, desperate and fraught with misplaced romance.

Set in Arkansas, Mud captures the rhythm of the South in a way few films do.

Mud, from the Austin-based writer/director Jeff Nichols, is many things at once, and all enriched by David Wingo's double-stop, aching, stringed score.

"Mud" is a powerful story of love, friendship and loyalties.

"Mud" is a terrific American film that is destined to be a classic. McConaughey is selecting superior roles as he matures into one of our finest actors. Now that's something no critic would have written 10 years ago.

The kind of film where small gestures and vignettes convey more than long speeches possibly could.

An evocative drama set at the precipice of adulthood.

McConaughey's resurgence is a glorious thing, and it continues with Mud.

Buy a boat in a tree, and you'll buy anything. And so we do in "Mud," Jeff Nichols's yarn about a charming outlaw on the run, drizzled with Tennessee Williams lyricism and Huck-and-Tom adventure.

No quotes approved yet for Mud. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mud_2012/

exit polls Presidential Polls California Propositions Electoral College chuck pagano A Gay Lesbian daylight savings time 2012