An On the Waterfront wannabe, directed with a heavy portentousness that smothers the drama in a thick sauce of self-importance.
- Todd McCarthy, Variety, August 05, 2008
I can't remember when a film so well-acted and so well-rendered visually was also so oppressive to sit through.
- Andrew Sarris, New York Observer, April 27, 2007
A sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story.
- Geoff Andrew, Time Out, June 24, 2006
- , Globe and Mail, April 25, 2003
Self-consciously elegiac, The Yards is a slow-burning but meticulously crafted family melodrama posing as a thriller.
- Geoffrey Macnab, Sight and Sound, December 02, 2002
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, May 08, 2001
It looks like we've seen this all before but this has life and directions of its own that make it very rewarding viewing.
- Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile, May 07, 2001
Gray avoids the more obvious gangster clichés, and the film brings some genuinely original flourishes to the genre.
- Matt Ford, BBC, April 16, 2001
Better in execution than in content, and Gray will be a name to watch once his talents are allied to a better screenplay, for he is undoubtedly a gifted, distinctive visual artist.
- , Empire Magazine, January 01, 2000
After a point, The Yards crosses the line from portentously atmospheric to merely dolorous.
- Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 01, 2000
By the end, we're left with a feeling of depletion rather than resolution.
- Jay Carr, Boston Globe, January 01, 2000
It's another rehash.
- Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee, January 01, 2000
- Susan Stark, Detroit News, January 01, 2000
It is so choked with its own solemnity that it barely musters the energy to tell a story.
- Robert Horton, Film.com, January 01, 2000
A slice of NYC made with imitation cheese.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly, January 01, 2000
It's that [moral] ambiguity that makes the film interesting.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, January 01, 2000
A rare and often quite good try at making a thriller with real people and believable contemporary backgrounds.
- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune, January 01, 2000
The film's intense realism has a transcendent quality that makes it feel -- dare I say it? -- almost Shakespearean in the depth and scope of its commentary on the human condition.
- Peter Brunette, Film.com, January 01, 2000
- Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News, January 01, 2000
One of the best dramatic films to come out of Hollywood this year.
- Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com, January 01, 2000
