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      35 Shots of Rum

      Now Playing 1h 40m Drama List
      97% 68 Reviews Tomatometer 65% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score Lionel (Alex Descas), a widower, has raised his daughter, Josephine (Mati Diop), on his own since she was young. The two are used to living alone, dependent solely on one another. But, now that Josephine is in college, Lionel is beginning to realize they cannot stay isolated forever. Lionel reluctantly accepts the fact that his daughter has grown up and will one day leave him, when their neighbor Noe (Grégoire Colin) makes his long-harbored feelings for Josephine known. Read More Read Less Now in Theaters Now Playing Buy Tickets
      35 Shots of Rum

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      Critics Consensus

      This slow-moving French family drama is rich, complex, subtle and emotionally eloquent.

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      Critics Reviews

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      Dave Kehr Film Comment Magazine A sort of ballet of emotions, executed with weightless grace and poise. Sep 24, 2014 Full Review Calvin Wilson St. Louis Post-Dispatch Claire Denis, an acclaimed French director, makes films that defy the rules of Hollywood. Rated: 4/4 Feb 11, 2010 Full Review Cliff Doerksen Chicago Reader It's a beautiful picture but very quietly so, and definitely not for the ADHD set. Jan 26, 2010 Full Review Shannon Gramas Spectrum Culture 35 Shots of Rum would seem to be a radical departure for director Denis, a warm, intimate, minor key domestic drama which borrows much of its internal plot mechanics from Ozu’s masterful Late Spring. A closer examination reveals that not to be the case. May 27, 2022 Full Review Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog The result marks one of [Claire] Denis's smaller films--and one of [Alex] Descas's best and most subtle performances. Rated: 3.5/4 Sep 16, 2021 Full Review Dustin Chang Floating World Said to be an homage to Ozu, 35 rhums comfortably slips in to the universality of human conditions. Paper lanterns in Germany, rice cookers in an African household in France are completely in harmony with their surroundings. It's a beautiful film. Mar 24, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Beautiful and moving. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Nothing much happens but we are touched. Just like real life. Available as I write this on Kanopy Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/20/19 Full Review Audience Member Ozu's Late Spring is one of the greatest films of all time for my money and if someone were to tell me that it was being remade I might take to the streets in protest; however, Claire Denis accomplishes the impossible in translating the wistful melancholy of Ozu into a new format that may not equal the original but certainly does it justice. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member This is not a good film: it has nothing to say and it is event-less. Claire Denis apparently thinks that a film with mainly non-Caucasian French actors is by the same token wonderful. It certainly is the case that the French film industry is shockingly white... but to me Denis' thinking is itself rather racist. Imagine this film, with such dullness, but with white actors.... Sorry, a case of the emperor's new clothes. Beautifully shot, of course. A beautifully shot turkey. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Somehow Claire Denis has managed to create a warm moody film, one that ruminates about the positive aspects of our closest relationships (in this case between single dad and daughter), even as it signals the changes that must occur without ever making them too sad. In this way, Denis has taken her cues from Ozu, particularly Late Spring (1949) which also sees a father contemplating his daughter's future life without him. Alex Descas plays the dad as a man of few words but deep feeling. His life is complicated by romantic pursuit from a neighbour, a chain-smoking taxi driver, who has long been treated as part of the family. Another neighbour provides a romantic interest for Josephine, the daughter (played by Mati Diop). The relationships between these four principals and a few others make up the heart of the film and Denis allows the richness and complexity of real life to infuse the film. At the same time, her eye for composition (including Ozu-like still lifes), her ear for the way that the soundtrack can evoke moods (courtesy of the Tindersticks), and her thoughtful script that leaves ambiguities everywhere, such that we don't really know anything about the backstory of the characters except what we can infer, elevate the film beyond an ordinary drama. In the end, Alex drinks the 35 shots of rum to mark a special occasion, though we are left to guess at what has happened (but the second rice cooker gives it away). Rich and satisfying without ever threatening to be a major statement. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member A beautiful French movie about a father and daughter relationship. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      35 Shots of Rum

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Lionel (Alex Descas), a widower, has raised his daughter, Josephine (Mati Diop), on his own since she was young. The two are used to living alone, dependent solely on one another. But, now that Josephine is in college, Lionel is beginning to realize they cannot stay isolated forever. Lionel reluctantly accepts the fact that his daughter has grown up and will one day leave him, when their neighbor Noe (Grégoire Colin) makes his long-harbored feelings for Josephine known.
      Director
      Claire Denis
      Screenwriter
      Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
      Distributor
      Cinema Guild
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      French (Canada)
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Sep 16, 2009, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Apr 17, 2020
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $177.5K
      Runtime
      1h 40m