Elena
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: May 18, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMay 24, 2012
The script, by Oleg Negin and Zvyagintsev, uses spare dialogue to quietly devastating effect. Performances are superb across the board, framed in elegant widescreen compositions that simmer with violence. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 20, 2012
A breakthrough movie after its own fashion, a mysterious existential thriller that's brilliantly acted and masterfully directed, without a second of wasted screen time. Read full review
100
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 17, 2012
Post-Soviet Russia in Andrei Zvyagintsev's somber, gripping film Elena is a moral vacuum where money rules, the haves are contemptuous of the have-nots, and class resentment simmers. The movie, which shuttles between the center of Moscow and its outskirts, is grim enough to suggest that even if you were rich, you wouldn't want to live there. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMay 16, 2012
It's an austere Russian drama with shades of Hitchcock. Read full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangJun 5, 2012
A wise and impeccably controlled drama that finds Russian helmer Andrei Zvyagintsev in outstanding form. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 31, 2012
Elena reveals a filmmaker in full command of his art and not much interested in catering to an audience. If you want this film, you have to meet it more than halfway. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. MusettoMay 18, 2012
Nadezhda Markina is splendid as Elena, who speaks little but still manages to make her thoughts and emotions crystal clear. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 15, 2012
Elena is a film deeply concerned with class resentment, but the filmmakers' attitude toward their titular character is disconcerting and even shocking. Read full review
85
NPRElla TaylorMay 22, 2012
Beneath the noirish topicality of Elena, which won a special jury prize at Cannes last year, lies a bone-deep existential unease and spiritual alienation, a preoccupation with sin that is at once quintessentially Russian and wholly archaic. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonOct 17, 2012
Backed by a sparing Philip Glass score, Elena eloquently shows how, in modern Russia, even family relationships are at the mercy of business. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 12, 2012
It's a sort of slow-boil Russian noir, if that genre exists, and if it doesn't, it does now. It's also a statement on class discrepancy in post-Soviet Russia. Arrogance, betrayal, crime and violence are all part of the story, directed and co-written by Andrei Zvyagintsev. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 15, 2012
Rarely do movies-never mind foreign ones, of any nationality - explore an honest-to-God ethical quandary. Elena, in its concentrated austerity, often resembles a lost chapter of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Ten Commandments–themed Decalogue. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 11, 2012
Shoot this film in black and white and cast Barbara Stanwyck as Elena, and you'd have a 1940s classic. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJun 13, 2012
This is a quiet, powerful film about the lengths we'll go to for the sake of the people we love - and the depths we'll sink to for the sake of the ones we hate. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 8, 2012
There's no music to tell you what to think. It's just three good actors and one director's merciless powers of observation. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonMay 15, 2012
All of this builds into the film's last image, Elena's family finally welcomed into Vladimir's apartment, as the cautious, controlling, abstemious bourgeoisie are overtaken by the heedlessly fertile lower orders, the temporary inheritors of a terribly weary earth. Read full review
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