Anselm
Sideshow | Release Date: December 8, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
VarietyCatherine BrayMay 26, 2023
More a portrait of Kiefer’s work than a standard biographical study of Kiefer himself, “Anselm” is a very particular study of a singular man’s soul, told through images of his oeuvre, augmented by sensational use of archive rendered in 3D. Read full review
91
Original-CinChris KnightJan 2, 2024
It’s almost as if 3D was made for this. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 19, 2023
The way he films Kiefer, Wenders finds more drama in gestures such as these than he might in biographical detail. This is art that dares to live in the world, and Anselm is itself a wonderfully alive work. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleDec 17, 2023
The result is also one of the year’s most memorable theatrical experiences, because it’s Wenders’ return to 3-D (after 2011’s “Pina”), proving again how versatile and intimate the format can be when skillfully applied outside the genre of blockbusters. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalZachary BarnesDec 8, 2023
This is not the kind of 3-D that sees things leaping off the screen, though a few wandering wisps of smoke appear to escape the frame; it instead lends these images a sometimes uncanny, sometimes mesmerizing sense of depth. While it doesn’t feel integral to the project, it does, now and then, enrich it. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonDec 7, 2023
A film like Anselm is another level of preservation as well as a contemplative experience, in which the past and the future meet, in a way we can feel as much as see. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 2, 2024
You can go into Anselm knowing roughly as much as I did (very little, or less), and Wenders’ latest nonfiction portrait of an artist and their environment will work, effortlessly, because it’s just plain beautiful. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineGregory NussenOct 26, 2023
Anselm is ultimately an extension of Kiefer’s “protest against forgetting,” as it reminds us that art is an act of remembrance. Read full review
87
Paste MagazineKathy Michelle ChacónDec 7, 2023
Anselm combines the filmmaker’s technical mastery with a deep curiosity for his subject to create an experience that is as thought-provoking as it is immersive. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorDec 22, 2023
In truth, as this film observes more and more of his compelling oeuvre, the viewer becomes more engrossed in the art than its cinematic presentation and the 3-D effect seems to fade into the background, necessary rather than impressive. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 11, 2023
The meditative experience is heightened by Wenders’s innovative use of sound: indistinct whispers flutter like bats through the cavernous spaces. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 8, 2023
We long-term Kiefer nerds may not learn much, but so what? It’s more important that newcomers thrill to—or recoil from—this self-mythicizing figure who forges sculptures out of fighter planes and U-boats. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 8, 2023
Late Wenders sits at an odd angle to the young man obsessed with wandering and with the United States. There is a sense of a busy mind eager to share enthusiasms. Its generousness is part of the appeal. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsDec 7, 2023
The 3D aspect is often used to mesmerising effect, and dovetails perfectly with an artist whose work often demands the viewer inspect it from multiple angles and vantages. Read full review
80
Time OutAnna BogutskayaNov 15, 2023
It is art ASMR of the highest order. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 26, 2023
This is a superbly controlled and expressed film and its high seriousness about the nature and purpose of art really is invigorating. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 26, 2023
Wim Wenders’ latest documentary Anselm offers a mesmerizing, cinematic catalogue of German painter-sculptor Anselm Kiefer’s deeply tactile, maximalist oeuvre. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 26, 2023
Anselm is a portrait of eminent German artist Anselm Kiefer, exploring the man’s spectacular – and often spectacularly sombre – work. Wenders also delves into Kiefer’s biography and his political, historical and literary interests, which chime with the director’s own long-term fascinations to make this arguably the director’s most personal – and certainly most German – film in some time. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJan 10, 2024
This is Wenders’ portrait, and as such it is as unique and thought-provoking as Kiefer’s own epic works. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJan 18, 2024
The wordless, elderly Kiefer is enigmatic, and a bit intimidating. His work is impressive, though, especially in 3D. Read full review
75
Washington PostMark JenkinsJan 3, 2024
As Kiefer’s monumental art decays, “Anselm” can endure as his memorial. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyDec 8, 2023
Wenders chooses to illuminate indirectly, and to compel the viewer to concoct questions of their own. Read full review
67
IndieWireRyan LattanzioDec 8, 2023
What we’re left with is a rather opaque portrait of the artist as a man, but certainly a vivid one of the man’s art. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkDec 8, 2023
Anselm at its most effecting shows how cinematic exhibition thoughtfully utilizing 3D can make an intimate encounter with an artist. When it’s less powerful, the experience suggests rushed cliffnotes of a fascinating life. Read full review
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