"This is the director at his tenderest."
— Rafaela Sales Ross, The Playlist
"An auteur operating at the top of the league."
— Jane Crowther, Total Film
"Schrader-heads will surely enjoy this as a sort of victory lap after his last two triumphs."
— Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK)
"For all the film’s provocations, both serious and mischievous, it’s a remarkably elegant, subtle piece. It’s dramatically involving, and features standout performances from a tantalisingly hard-to-read Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver at her loftiest, and Quintessa Swindell an up-and-coming graduate of TV’s Euphoria, Trinkets and In Treatment. Their presence, and Schrader’s currently enhanced profile, should see prospects bloom."
— Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily
"Paul Schrader has been on something of a tear of late, with a trio of films that play like deeply conflicted confessions he absolutely must get off his chest. In some sense, most of his work has felt that way (including Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, which he wrote before his own directorial debut), but the raw triptych of First Reformed, The Card Counter, and now Master Gardener represents a thoughtful filmmaker working unapologetically at the height of his craft. His latest is arguably the most accomplished film of this informal trilogy, each focusing on men with troubled pasts reckoning with the present and the future."
— Siddhant Adlakha, IGN
