The Washington Post called the film "one of the most exciting breakout films of the year", and RogerEbert.com sang the movie's praises, calling it "an almost perfectly realized drama that feels as if it was time-warped in from 40 or 50 years ago, in the tradition of great American cinema chamber pieces like 'The Last Picture Show,' 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,' 'The Great Santini,' and more recently, 'Winter's Bone'."