Lore
Music Box Films | Release Date: February 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film.comJordan HoffmanFeb 26, 2013
Lore is a rare, wonderful film that works not just as surface entertainment, but has deeper historical meaning, as well as an even grander, more universal statement. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesSteven BooneFeb 13, 2013
Lore belongs in the inspiration-and-control camp. It makes dizzying flourishes out of moments that would pass as filler in other films. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedFeb 9, 2013
It’s a remarkable accomplishment. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 7, 2013
Shortland, whose only previous feature was 2004's coming-of-age drama "Somersault," creates a visceral, immersive environment and draws a very impressive performance from newcomer Saskia Rosendahl. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 7, 2013
The film sustains an air of overarching mystery in which the viewer, like the title character, is in the position of a sheltered child plunked into an alien environment and required to fend for herself without a map or compass. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 14, 2013
By the end of their arduous journey, Lore and her siblings are changed. But it's the kind of change that will take years, perhaps generations, to understand, to heal. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 7, 2013
I’m not sure Lore holds up to repeated viewings — Shortland’s style is so feverish it could quickly turn precious — but it demands to be seen at least once. Read full review
85
NPRElla TaylorFeb 8, 2013
The climax Shortland offers us is much harder to take than Seiffert's gentler vision, yet far more evocative of the bitter price paid by the children of the Third Reich for the sins of their parents. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 8, 2013
The images captured by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw are more dreamy than nightmarish as if his camera — like the children — doesn't fully understand the dangers. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumFeb 13, 2013
This striking, slow-building drama from Cate Shortland uses fractured, impressionistic imagery as a mirror of moral dislocation as the children make their way through an unfamiliar landscape. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 17, 2013
World War II dramas might be common enough, but, amid them all, Lore stands as an uncommon entry in the genre. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksFeb 22, 2013
Australian director Cate Shortland's drama is overflowing with such poetic visual touches, conjuring up a fairytale landscape of long shadows, wafting curtains and waving fronds. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonFeb 16, 2013
This oblique and understated tale of lost innocence conveys both an individual’s experiences and a powerful sense of a ruined nation. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 7, 2013
At its heart Lore qualifies as a coming-of-age story, but it is far from the ones we usually see. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 14, 2013
With a child’s perspective on war, Lore deserves comparisons with “Empire of the Sun” and “Hope and Glory,” and with a feisty female protagonist it stands virtually alone. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleLeba HertzFeb 28, 2013
Rosendahl brings a wonderful innocence and burgeoning sexual awakening to the role, while still evincing inner strength and complexity. In her unconscious attempts to regain her soul, Lore pays the ultimate price as she discovers the stink of who she and her family and her country had become. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 8, 2013
Saskia Rosendahl is a highly expressive actress within the limited confines of her character, and the film is studded with memorable scenes. Read full review
75
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeFeb 7, 2013
Lore is the sort of movie you’d already expect to rip your heart out, but that doesn’t diminish the tragedy when it does arrive. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasFeb 6, 2013
If nothing else, Shortland gives Rosendahl a star-making platform on par with Cornish’s in "Somersault": She’s a magnetic screen presence who subtly conveys not only the struggle and guilt inherent to her situation, but also a residue of hate that’s carried over from her parents. The actor, like her character, shoulders a heavy burden. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 7, 2013
The pace is deliberate, verging on slow — Australian filmmakers aren't keen on short takes or quick cuts — but the content is constantly surprising. Read full review
70
Village VoiceScott Foundas Feb 5, 2013
Shortland draws fine work from her actors, particularly the haunting Rosendahl, who manages to seem by turns a perfectly unbending Nazi youth, a frightened little girl forced to grow up too quickly, and a sensuous young woman bursting into bloom. Read full review
70
VarietyRichard KuipersFeb 1, 2013
Lore offers a fresh, intimate and mostly successful perspective on Germany's traumatic transition from conqueror nation to occupied state. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 6, 2013
Although there are moments that push the story a bit beyond credulity, Shortland has created something remarkable by forcing us to find within ourselves sympathy for this would-be Aryan princess. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthFeb 7, 2013
While a film of great craft, strongly performed by the cast across the board, and particulary by the lead, newcomer Saskia Rosendahl, Lore never lets the audience in close enough for it to be a truly embraceable picture. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 16, 2013
An engrossing but frustrating movie, so subtle in its depiction of a teenager struggling to come to terms with a world and worldview utterly upended that it almost trivializes the tragedy that Lore, we suspect, is just beginning to feel responsible for. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyFeb 6, 2013
Copious amounts of landscape and wilderness shots cover up its schematic plot, as its indirect visual allusions take precedence over thematic development. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 7, 2013
Australian director Cate Shortland’s straightforward approach to the blinders worn by Hitler Youth creates a disconcerting and eerie film, made even more memorable since it’s seen through the prism of childhood’s end. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearFeb 5, 2013
What starts as a flipped survival tale turns into historical tragisploitation that wallows in its slog of endless suffering. Read full review
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