80
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Screen DailyJonathan RomneyScreen DailyJonathan RomneyWorking with Carbunariu, Jude offers a spare, visually striking evocation of the methods of Ceausescu’s secret police, the Securitate, in its pursuit and punishment of a young dissident.
- 90The New York TimesDevika GirishThe New York TimesDevika GirishThe film, a rousing, form-bending new feature by the Romanian auteur Radu Jude, rails at the tyrannical potential of language — particularly when backed by government power — to suffocate people’s freedoms.
- 89Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAustin ChronicleJosh KupeckiJude and Cărbunariu have brought Mugur Călinescu back to life, and woven him into a complex tapestry that reveals a country’s history as a most fragile trompe l’oeil.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt is a fierce and impassioned denunciation of evil.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThe Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonThis may be one of Jude’s minor works, but it delivers a quietly devastating emotional punch.
- 80Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarLos Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarShouting in all-caps about unions and shortages of food, Călinescu symbolizes the power of individuals that dare to discern from their own personal trenches, regardless of how insignificant they may seem.
- 75Slant MagazineWilliam RepassSlant MagazineWilliam RepassThe film metatextually insists that we not be taken in by new, more sophisticated methods of obfuscation.
- 70VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangIn Uppercase Print, the fangs of the past are sharp, but muzzled.
- 70The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyJude, with his multiple dimensions of inquiry and imagination, poses philosophical questions about conscience and consciousness, media consumption and social order, that reach far beyond the case and era at hand to challenge the deceptions and delusions of ostensible present-day democracies.