Commercially profitable and greatly critically successful, it was generally well reviewed with many critics naming it one of the the best films of 2020 and it earning six Academy Award nominations which included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

Critical reviews for the film are very positive overall with The New York Times’ A.O. Scott stating that “Minari is modest, specific and thrifty, like the lives it surveys” and that “it operates at the true scale of life”, while the BBC’s Nicholas Barber rated the film 5/5 stars and Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press  gave it 4/4 stars, with each respectively stating that it is “sensitively written and acted, beautifully shot” and that “one of the great triumphs of… [the film] is its presentation of authentic childhood. These kids are not saints or stand-ins or mouthpieces. They are their own persons.” Lastly, Benjamin Lee of The Guardian and Robbie Collin of The Telegraph both rated it 4/5 with each respectively stating that it “deservedly became the [Sundance Film Festival]’s most universally loved film” and that “Lee Isaac Chung’s tender story is a finely-observed portrait of family relations and rural American values”.

Today, it stands on Rotten Tomatoes at 98% with its critical consensus reading as: “Led by arresting performances from Steven Yeun and Yeri Han, Minari offers an intimate and heart-wrenching portrait of family and assimilation in 1980s America.”