Never Look Away
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: January 25, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireIan FreerJul 5, 2019
If Never Look Away is no The Lives Of Others, it is also a cut above The Tourist. A strongly crafted, ambitious, occasionally absorbing dissection of a fascinating period in German culture, it is perhaps too middle-brow and broad for its own good. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 24, 2019
A sumptuous romantic epic that's too polished for its own good. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijNov 29, 2018
The work’s considerations of the intimate connection among being, art and life finally feel quite superficial. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 22, 2019
We watch as the film moves from year to year, the characters sometimes disappearing illogically, with Kurt forever at work on one unsatisfying project or another, until he finally finds a subject that speaks only to him. The movie’s German title — Werk Ohne Autor, which means Work Without Author — seems almost too apt. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 3, 2018
In emphasizing how art allows us to make sense of the past, and consecrate even the most banal of sins, Von Donnersmarck loses his grip on the emotional payoff of the present. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 13, 2019
Above all, it’s a meditation on art and creativity that’s by turns earnest, troubled, sentimental, and middlebrow. It’s a big, glossy affair that somehow feels rather small. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 4, 2019
The actors are good, but their lovemaking has no raw edges, no messiness. Deschanel lights them like sculptures — art objects — while Richter saws away to serenade their transcendent oneness. It’s Middlebrow Realism, comrades. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorNov 29, 2018
As Kurt finds his true art in the West, thanks to the help of a fictional version of Joseph Beuys, the film turns gripping, but it ultimately reduces art appreciation to the autobiographical. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 26, 2019
Never Look Away is not without ambition and reach, and there is a real storytelling impulse. But the central performance of Schilling looks shruggingly uncertain, as if he is bemused by what is going on. Read full review
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