Popular reviews

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  Review by Brian Sweeney ★★★★

  tired: American Beauty starting a movie with "in less than a year I'll be dead"

  wired: Eve's Bayou starting a movie with "the summer I killed my father I was 10 years old."

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  Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★½ 10

  Eve's Bayou is a forgotten gem of American cinema. It is a character study that doesn't give away too much, too soon. It rewards the patient viewer, and it also lets the audience decide what memories they choose to take away from the film. 

  Eve's Bayou has a Southern Fried feel mixed with a jazzy New Orleans groove. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the landscape truly is a central character in the film. Kasi Lemmons' directing is near-flawless, and Amy Vincent's cinematography deserved an Oscar nomination. 

  The star has to be Jurnee Smollett's Eve. As she acts way above her years. Also, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan and Meagan Good all bring awesomeness to the acting table. This might be the…

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★½ 3

  “Memory is the selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. Each image is like a thread, each thread woven together to make a tapestry of intricate texture. And the tapestry tells a story, and the story is our past.”

  What an emotional banger this masterfully crafted high drama excursion into southern gothic is. Filled with swampy atmos and terrific performances, there’s something otherworldly about this film and I love it.

  
  What an important movie.

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  Review by benton tarantella 2

  the way i legitimately believed this was a horror movie growing up. it’s a drama about secrets and grief and how memory is simply a selection of images, how they can change depending on who’s remembering. it’s a drama but the atmosphere can be so eerie and unsettling. there are skeletons in the graveyard but there are more in the closet

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★½ 8

  When a picture receives so much acclaim and attention, I don't think anyone should be shocked when it delivers big time.

  For me, the film's biggest strength, and what sets it apart from other coming-of-age pictures, is that it seems quite distinctive in many aspects. It reflects in many ways what many people may have felt growing up in this corner of the world at the time. There is also a hint of magic realism that gives the film a unique flavor.

  In terms of acting, a very young Jurnee Smollett is terrific as our protagonist. She captures the purity of infancy while attaining maturity from her life experiences. Debi Morgan is another character that really popped out for me…

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  Review by nick ★★★★ 1

  Eve’s Bayou is a captivating black coming-of-age story, and an impressive directorial debut from Kasi Lemmons. Thanks to a layered, culturally colorful script, Lemmons magically created a microscopic world that's as dreamy and terrifying as the bayous, and the beasts inside are always ready to bite.

  Told from a child's perspective, Eve’s Bayou details a black girl's bittersweet experiences growing up in a black town where evil lurks amid innocence. From competitive siblings to a psychic aunt, Eve’s Bayou features some of the most vibrant female characters in cinema, and the all-black cast was mighty enough to pull off the delicious dynamics and highly demanding acting showcases the juicy script demands. A young Jurnee Smollett was for sure the standout…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 4

  As a piece of melodrama, this film is severely damaged by its egregiously overblown score. It's smooth, loud, and wells up right at the wrong moments, as if hamming up the soundtrack somehow makes hammed up acting more palatable. Between this slap in the face and the occasional awkward moments from Jurnee Smollett (who would grow up to be on Friday Night Lights, one of the best television show sever made) and her character's sister, the performances suffered a bit. On the other hand, Smollett also delivers the funniest, most impressive moment in the film as she takes her mother to task, so it evens out.

  I don't know what a realistic, intelligent portrayal of voodoo would look like, probably…

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  Review by chavel ★★★★

  “The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.” — Eve

  Here is one that plays even better today, an African-American family ensemble drama set in the Southern Gothic 1960’s. Eve’s Bayou plunges into the Louisiana backwaters so vividly that immediately we feel like we are seeing something fresh. Samuel L. Jackson is the popular community doctor who lives with his wife and children in an attractive home by the bayou. He’s too popular with the ladies, which causes friction with his wife and her kinfolk, and spurs jealousy between his daughters because one is more favored than the other. The narration over the first scene of the movie promises, of course, that Eve will commit a fateful…

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  Review by Sara Clements ★★★★ 1

  This gave me Atonement vibes mixed with the best of Sirk melodramas, but of course, from a different and much needed perspective. I wish Jurnee Smollett got to have the kind of career that all the white child actors do.

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  Review by Bethany ★★★★½ 4

  it literally a crime that Jurnee Smollett didn't break out like all the white child actors did after her performance in this film. she was acting better than most of the adults here but I'm so glad she's finally starting to get her due now. Eve's Bayou is spellbinding and Louisiana itself is like a whole character in the story, the setting is so gorgeous and adds so much to what is going on. Lynn Whitfield is also incredible but when is she not? if you haven't seen this I beg you to watch it, you won't regret it!

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  Review by JBird ★★★★

  Down in the Bayou, young Eve,
  Is not sure what to believe.
  A memory fades,
  L. Jackson evades,
  Not knowing when to just leave.

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  Review by claira curtis ★★★★★ 5

  “You’ll need strength to help you through this.” 

  I’ve watched a lot of great movies already so far this year, but Eve’s Bayou is the first movie of the year to leave me reeling, unable to shake the urge to curl into myself and sob out of a simultaneous appreciation and heartache.

  It’s about faith. It’s about family. It’s about lies eating you up inside. It’s about childhood rage. It’s about having your childhood wrenched away from you by those you trust the most. It’s about the terrors of realizing your parents might not be the heroes you’ve always seen them as.

  “I need to be a hero sometimes.” 

  The fragility of memories and faith work together to form an ever…