Paradise: Faith
Strand Releasing | Release Date: August 23, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonAug 21, 2013
For all its abrasiveness, the film is also capable of real tenderness. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonAug 20, 2013
Though we're never allowed a close-up, Hofstätter's performance comes off as an unselfconscious tour de force, painfully real and culturally lost. Read full review
80
VarietyLeslie FelperinAug 14, 2013
The constant juxtaposition of scenes showing the dark and light aspects of the characters endows the pic with a juicy moral complexity that will stimulate post-screening debates. Read full review
80
Total FilmTom DawsonAug 14, 2013
Laying bare his characters, Seidl uncovers the doubt beneath the armour of religious belief. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 29, 2013
Although there are several stretches in the movie in which Seidl seems to be repeating himself, the director is carefully building toward a knock-out final scene in which the inscrutable, often annoying Anna becomes beautifully, poignantly human in front of our eyes, like magic. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 23, 2013
Crazy, violent and shocking events go down in Paradise: Faith — events that will startle the devout and non-believers alike — but Austrian director Ulrich Seidl depicts them all with same sort of monotone detachment he uses in the film's more mundane moments. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 22, 2013
Like it or not, Paradise: Faith sticks in your head. The fierce, indelible performance of Ms. Hofstätter, a regular in Mr. Seidl’s films, may make you cringe with revulsion, but it is utterly riveting. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasAug 22, 2013
Seidl could not be clearer in his associations between religion and sex, but in Paradise: Faith, he’s slightly less successful in mining them for greater insights. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearAug 20, 2013
It’s hard to say if Faith works better as part of a whole instead of a triptych’s single panel until the trilogy is complete, but the unconverted may find this too much of a cross to bear. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 14, 2013
This is cinema as decathlon – a string of tribulations to sap your stamina and make your ligaments burn. Read full review
60
EmpireSimon CrookAug 14, 2013
Part two of Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy is a stark, morally complex study of blind belief, lightened by black laughs and Seidl’s static, deadpan compositions. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 14, 2013
There are plenty of Seidl's signature grotesques, extended uncomfortable scenes and hardcore imagery owing something to Lucian Freud and Diane Arbus. But perhaps for the first time there is also a hint of ordinary human heartbreak. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 21, 2013
A powerful final scene reveals that Seidl knew exactly where he was going. But the journey is stultifyingly static, repeating the same basic information over and over with only negligible variations. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 22, 2013
With little room to feel for or even understand Anna Maria, Paradise: Faith rarely seems more than high art with low intentions. Read full review
38
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeAug 22, 2013
Now, here’s the trilogy’s second installment, in which the jolly Austrian makes it clear that women of a certain age do not have his permission to overdo it with religion, either. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneAug 14, 2013
A shallow film that leaves us knowing exactly what we're seeing, and able to predict what the characters will say to each other in the mostly uninspired and overtly familiar dialogue. Read full review
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