Editing The Straight Story (section)

===Critical reception===
''The Straight Story'' was critically acclaimed upon its release, with critics lauding Lynch's uncharacteristic subject matter. ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' described the film as a "celestial piece of [[Americana (culture)|Americana]]".<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://ew.com/article/1999/10/15/straight-story-2/|title=The Straight Story|date=October 15, 1999|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|access-date=August 12, 2017|last=Gleiberman|first=Owen}}</ref> The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' wrote of the film, "we see something American studio movies usually don't give us: the simple, unsentimentalized beauty of the [[Rural areas in the United States|rural American]] [[Midwestern United States|Midwestern]] landscape."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/10/15/straight-story-told-in-simple-beautiful-style/|title=''Straight Story'' Told In Simple, Beautiful Style|website=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=August 12, 2017|last=Wilmington|first=Michael|date=October 15, 1999|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812135550/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-10-15/entertainment/9910150002_1_straight-story-richard-farnsworth-american-pictures|archive-date=August 12, 2017}}</ref>

Janet Maslin of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "the same bellwether quality that left ''Blue Velvet'' looking so prescient, and ushered in a whole cinematic wave of taboo-shattering, is at work once again. When a born unnaturalist like Lynch can bring such interest and emotion to one man's simple story, the realm of the ordinary starts looking like a new frontier."<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |title='The Straight Story': An Unlikely Filmmaker Takes on a G-Rated Challenge |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/101599straight-film-review.html |access-date=13 November 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=October 15, 1999}}</ref> Of Farnsworth's performance, Maslin wrote, "he automatically frees the film from any sense of artifice and delivers an amazingly stalwart performance that will not soon be forgotten."<ref name="NYT" /> Her review concluded, "''The Straight Story'' is...about gazing at the sky, about experiencing each encounter to the fullest, than it is about getting anywhere in a hurry. It's been too long since a great American movie dared to regard life that way."<ref name="NYT" />

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film four out of four stars, the first positive review he had given to a film by Lynch. He wrote: "The first time I saw ''The Straight Story'' I focused on the foreground and liked it. The second time I focused on the background, too, and loved it. The movie isn't just about the old Alvin Straight's odyssey through the sleepy towns and rural districts of the Midwest, but about the people he finds to listen and care for him."<ref name="ebert">{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-straight-story-1999 |title=The Straight Story (1999) |last=Ebert |first=Roger |work=RogerEbert.com |access-date=February 15, 2016|date=October 15, 1999}}</ref>

On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With strong performances and director David Lynch at the helm, ''The Straight Story'' steers past sentimental byways on its ambling journey across the American heartland."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/straight_story/|title=The Straight Story (1999)|work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|access-date=November 26, 2022}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref name="The Straight Story"/>