The Guardian December 26, 2013 The utter solitude is almost vertiginous.
Independent December 16, 2013 It’s the detail and precision of his storytelling style that makes All Is Lost so engrossing.
Sight & Sound February 6, 2014 The film attains an operatic grandeur in its closing moments, and surprisingly earns it: Chandor’s intensely physical, experiential work has...
New York Times October 17, 2013 An action movie in the most profound and exalted sense of the term …
A showcase for Robert Redford like he hasn’t had in years and further proof that the writer/director of "Margin Call" is one to watch.
New York Post October 18, 2013 A gripping experience … with its circling sharks, its sun-dappled beauty and its agonies of shattered hope.
Shockya.com October 9, 2013 Watching a man try to survive a mid-sea disaster is compelling, but watching a man try to survive a mid-sea disaster in an effort to live...
A fascinating voyage across a vast ocean, and into the great uncharted waters of our selves.
There’s something powerful lurking in the deep.
Chandor, within the confines he has set for himself, has done an excellent job of locking us into his hero’s predicament.
Chandor has produced a minimalist gem.
ReelViews October 24, 2013 All is Lost is about how human nature rebels against death, even when all hope is vanquished by adverse circumstances.
A signal film achievement and the capstone to a great star’s career. This is Ultimate Redford.
The Dissolve October 16, 2013 The approach results in one scene of heart-in-throat action after another, with Chandor’s immersive approach shoring up Redford’s remar...
All Is Lost is very pure film-making, set entirely on the water, without dialogue, just showing us the man’s fight to survive from moment to...
J.C. Chandor knows what a jewel he has in Redford, and he creates an appropriately simple, transparent setting.
There is incredible tension in this ordeal, this effort to survive, to find rescue, and Redford – an icon of the American film experience for...
It’s just a guy. On a boat. For 107 minutes. And every one of those minutes is riveting.
Who is "Our Man"? What did he do in life? Why was he out there? It doesn’t matter. All that matters is this moment, and the next moment...
Daily Telegraph December 26, 2013 [Redford] speaks barely a handful of lines in All Is Lost, but the film still manages to feel like an internal monologue, a conversation betwe...
filmcomment.com September 8, 2013 Forsaking the chatter of his risibly exposition-heavy MARGIN CALL (11), and one-upping LIFE OF PI by stripping things down to the bare minimum, Cha...
movies.yahoo.com October 30, 2013 As a solo sailor on a hostile sea, Robert Redford doesn’t so much play to the camera, as tolerate it, showing that, even at 77, he&rsquo...
The New Republic October 4, 2013 All Is Lost is amazing, deeply moving, and a harking back to an age when the best mainstream films might be the best pictures America made.
Irish Times January 1, 2014 Gravity’s great weakness was the unnecessarily abundant corny dialogue. All Is Lost is makes no such compromises.
Even Redford bailing water for 106 minutes can be a bit much.
All Is Lost was clearly a challenge to produce, and it makes its own demands on its viewers. It’s a worthwhile effort on both counts.
Austin Chronicle November 8, 2013 Five minutes alone with him in All Is Lost will make you feel like a chump for ever suspecting [Redford] was done for. The charisma never went away...
Redford delivers a tour de force performance: holding the screen effortlessly with no acting support whatsoever.
Rolling Stone October 17, 2013 Redford, who can play intelligence, wit and nuance to a camera like nobody’s business, holds us in his grip. It’s a master cl...
USA Today October 17, 2013 Chandor proves that the elements, combined with the varied and subtle talents of a veteran actor, are all that is needed to make a captiv...
Robert Redford gives an impressive one-man show in this sea-stranded survival tale.
In lesser hands, his character’s ordeal might have been portrayed with big punctuation marks and dramatic flourishes. Redford’s reactio...
indieWire October 15, 2013 Even as All Is Lost expands Chandor’s range with a far more engaging and determined work, the true auteur of All Is Lost is Redford hims...
Arizona Republic October 24, 2013 Although you may never be bored with "All Is Lost," you are rarely fully engaged.
From bow to stern, Chandor delivers pure cinema.
An impressively spare, nearly dialogue-free stranded-at-sea drama starring a superb Robert Redford.
Even at the age of 77, Redford can command a screen, and he’s the main reason to watch this man-against-nature story.
Los Angeles Times October 17, 2013 "All Is Lost," which is only Chandor’s second film, reveals itself as remarkably skillful, surprisingly insightful and deeply moving.
The Australian February 28, 2014 It’s a rare example of pure cinema, and that, in itself, gives it a stature to which few Hollywood films these days aspire.
Robert Redford’s true grit and some wizardly images, not the script, are what make this one-man survival epic ineluctably compelling.
RogerEbert.com October 18, 2013 Here is a formidable opus whose real spiritual relative is Tennyson’s "Ulysses". Yes. "All is Lost" is that good.
Globe and Mail October 25, 2013 The movie is rigorous, serious and well-crafted, with Redford holding the screen using only his economical emotional reactions and physical presence.
Slant Magazine October 8, 2013 J.C. Chandor creates an austere snapshot of human struggle, ingenuity, and perseverance, one that’s predicated on Robert Redford’s fant...
Toronto Star October 25, 2013 For all its formal austerity, All Is Lost also offers itself as a widescreen multiplex attraction, keeping all eyes glued on Our Man’s d...
Observer October 16, 2013 Goodness knows what this movie would be like without the brute force of Mr. Redford’s intelligence, focus and self-confidence.
Financial Times December 26, 2013 Chandor’s movie gives us the Hemingwayish essentials and then some.
Like the best of the genre, its relentless focus on the material and the practical also gestures subtly at a life of the soul, however battered.
A vital, exciting piece of work from Mr. Redford, an actor whom you’d have been forgiven for counting out by now.