Fresh
The film does a fine job of displaying the contrasts between these tense, formalized Chinese students and the faux populist American academics.
Maureen M. Hart, Chicago Tribune
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Dark Matter
Overview
Liu Xing a brilliant Chinese student, arrives at University and makes the transition into American life with the help of Joanna Silver. Xing joins a cosmology group working to create a model of the origins of the universe. He is obsessed with the study of dark matter and a theory that conflicts with the group's model. When he begins to make breakthroughs of his own, he encounters obstructions.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
41%
Tomatometer
Rotten
There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from actual events, but it's a tricky business, and Dark Matter does no one right by sticking to the shocking conclusion.
Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle
Rotten
It is easy to see the film as two movies crammed together, neither of them being very good.
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Rotten
Liu Ye is too inexpressive for his role's demands, and the movie doesn't build to his downfall: It just zaps itself there.
Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly
Rotten
There's little in Billy Shebar's script, the rambling direction by theater and opera helmer Chen Shi-Zheng - or Liu Ye's impassive performance as the student.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
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