Elles
Kino Lorber | Release Date: April 27, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
NPRMark JenkinsApr 27, 2012
Yet Elles has contemporary pertinence. As the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair showed, feminism hasn't significantly mellowed France's macho culture. And sexual predation on young women from Eastern Europe remains a timely topic. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreApr 25, 2012
Elles is racy and often sexy, but underneath that simmers an old-school feminist anger. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 6, 2012
Elles has a surprisingly deep performance in a disappointingly shallow movie. The performance, acute and brave, is by Juliette Binoche. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 27, 2012
Elles is provocative company, but it leaves us feeling hustled. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenApr 26, 2012
It's tempting to call Elles some kind of thinking-person's sex movie, but it's more about thinking and about sex (and thinking about sex) and is far more likely to encourage awkward, emphatic conversation than post-show friskiness. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearApr 24, 2012
Titillation and tentative stabs at gender studies do not a cogent cri de coeur make. It's simply a provocation that's all hopped up with nowhere to go. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesApr 21, 2012
Another bravura performance from Juliette Binoche glosses over the flaws in a soft-focused glimpse at the seamier side of student life. Read full review
60
Total FilmPhilip KempApr 21, 2012
Binoche is, as always, superb, but Malgorzata Szumowska's film won't tell you much about the oldest profession that you didn't already know – and Binoche's marital clashes feel like a standard feminist tract circa 1975. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 17, 2012
Elles has about half of a story stretched to feature length, and it manages to end just as a good story might have been kicking in. But that is often the way with foreign cinema: The Europeans know how to do sex, but we know how to do stories. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 10, 2012
Both provocative and muddled, the film's a moody, passive-aggressive tract that's buoyed by superior performances and sunk by its own uncertainties. An alternate title might be "The Joylessness of Sex." Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. MusettoApr 27, 2012
Szumowska provides lurid scenes of perverted sex, but she offers no new insight into the sordid world of prostitution and the dangers sex workers face. Nor does she flesh out Charlotte and Alicja. The result is a superficial and voyeuristic film. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenApr 27, 2012
In case you have forgotten, all women are prostitutes, and all men are johns. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoApr 21, 2012
The film is ultimately draining because of the way it handles Anne, stranding a potentially dynamic character in two dueling scenarios, both of which are drab and unsurprising. Read full review
40
Village VoiceBenjamin MercerApr 24, 2012
It's entirely too much for co-writer/director Malgoska Szumowska to coherently flesh out in an hour and a half, especially with so much time dedicated just to the state of arousal. Read full review
40
The GuardianAndrew PulverApr 21, 2012
Binoche rises above the lubricious material by giving a thoroughly detailed and committed performance as the journalist. Read full review
40
VarietyRob NelsonApr 21, 2012
A typically smart performance by Juliette Binoche isn't enough to keep Elles from drowning in pseudo-intellectual pretension and general banality. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 27, 2012
The acting by Binoche and her two young co-stars is more nuanced than the film deserves. They bring a rich expressiveness and sense of complex inner life to their characters. It's the movie - and its placard-sized message - that is more two-dimensional. Read full review
More From This Movie

50 Critic Reviews

6.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL