 "Gavagai" garnered acclaim from film critics.Rotten Tomatoes reports 92% approval among 12 critics, and the film has a 91/100 average on Metacritic.Sheri Linden of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that the film's use of poetry "[casts] a fresh light on such familiar movie tropes as the listless traipse of modern-day searchers through overstocked supermarket aisles [...] From morning birdsong to the rustle of leaves in the breeze, from the stutter of stalled car engines to the spare and poignant score, there's nothing extraneous in Gavigai ["sic"].