80
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshLos Angeles TimesKatie WalshWithin "Housekeeping’s” restless, naturalistic aesthetic, Stolevski crafts complex and poignant images, contrasting the playacting the couple is forced to do with their searing gazes.
- 90The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisIn its cheerfully disordered way, “Housekeeping” tells us that families, like last-minute meals, must sometimes be created from whatever ingredients are at hand.
- 90VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeStolevski’s lively, garrulous script may be plot-heavy, but the film isn’t propelled as much by grand narrative turns as it is by the powderkeg reactivity of its characters. Each scrap and squabble and occasional flash of understanding between them activates the film anew, so no interpersonal dynamic here ever feels comfortably settled.
- 88The Associated PressMark KennedyThe Associated PressMark KennedyWriter and director Goran Stolevski gives us an atypical family portrait that’s brilliantly political without being preachy, loving without being maudlin and epic by being specifically tiny.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinWriter-director Goran Stolevski’s Housekeeping for Beginners (Domakinstvo za pocetnici) is a fizzy, huggable portrait of a self-made, roughly blended queer family.
- 70Rolling StoneDavid FearRolling StoneDavid FearHousekeeping for Beginners will not tell you much about keeping order amidst domestic chaos, per se. It is a primer, however, for turning a house into a home.
- 70ColliderTaylor GatesColliderTaylor GatesThe film manages to capture the specific way queer communities communicate with one another and the unique chemistry between them in a way few others have.
- 50Slant MagazineKyle TurnerSlant MagazineKyle TurnerIn spite of the too-muchness of their performances, the actors wrestle for expressiveness and subtlety against the script’s more obvious and schematic telegraphing of not-quite-nuclear discontent and, ultimately, reconciliation.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSan Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonStolevski obviously wants us to sympathize with these wounded characters who have been shunted aside by a cruel society, but that’s hard to do when they are so verbally cannibalistic.