Norte, the End of History

Critical reception

Norte, the End of History received critical acclaim upon its release. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 41 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Its four-hour length is undeniably imposing, but Norte, the End of History rewards patient viewers with an absorbing, visually expansive viewing experience."^[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[11]

A.O. Scott of New York Times writes, "More than four hours long, filmed in expansive takes with almost no close-ups and very few camera movements, Lav Diaz's "Norte, the End of History" is a tour de force of slow cinema. It is the work of a director as fascinated by decency as by ugliness, and able to present the chaos of life in a series of pictures that are at once luminously clear and endlessly mysterious."^[12]

Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter gave an underwhelming review by saying, "There's little in the way of genuine depth, complexity or nuance here, Diaz instead seeks to convey the illusion of profundity by having various characters throw around weighty social and philosophical verbiage in thuddingly sophomoric fashion."^[13]

At the end of 2013, British magazine Sight & Sound listed Norte as one of the Top 10 films of 2013, tying for the ninth spot with the French film Stranger by the Lake.^[14] The film also was chosen by the International Cinephile Society Awards 2014 as one of the Best Films not released in 2013.^[15] Norte was also ranked at #15 at Film Comment's Top 20 Best Films of 2014.^[16]

Rolling Stone listed the film as one of the Top 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century at number 98.^[17]

Awards and nominations