response to the film was largely favorable, with review aggregator rotten tomatoes showing it receiving 80% favorable reviews, praising lee's artfulness, commentary, and honest connection to human characters. negative reviews focused their criticism on the film's length and lee's overindulgence, with "time out london" writing, "most scenes play too long, with a surplus of ideas, textures, tones and characters, and after 134 minutes it's clear lee's problem with closure hasn't gone away." roger ebert gave the film three-and-a-half-stars, and called it lee's best film since "malcolm x". he was particularly encouraged by lee's determination not to adhere to typical conventions.