Paradise: Love
Strand Releasing | Release Date: April 26, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
3
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonApr 23, 2013
It might be the most lonesome film about a tropical vacation we've seen, and the greatest film ever made about the weird socioeconomics of tourism. Read full review
90
Film.comJordan HoffmanApr 28, 2013
I spent the bulk of Paradise Love mimicking Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a disturbing film. Read full review
90
VarietyLeslie FelperinApr 23, 2013
Repulsive and sublimely beautiful, arguably celebratory and damning of its characters, it’s hideous and masterful all at once, “Salo” with sunburn. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangApr 30, 2013
Challenging, complex and frequently ugly, Paradise: Love is a ruthless exploration of how unlike our everyday selves we can behave when we’re "on holiday," and how much that illuminates who we really are. Read full review
80
Time OutDavid FearApr 23, 2013
The importance of Tiesel’s performance here can’t be overstated, and even during what is easily the most excruciating birthday-party scene involving cock ribbons ever, the actor lends an incredibly profound sense of sorrow to the film’s pitilessness. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 23, 2013
Paradise: Love flits nimbly between humour and sadness, and treats potentially ponderous themes such as sex, race and the rancid legacy of colonialism with a welcome light touch. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 23, 2013
Paradise: Love, the first in a thematic trilogy, is a sad story about the difficulty individuals face when trying to establish relationships across vast cultural and economic gulfs. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneApr 23, 2013
It often seems more intent on spelling out its awareness of the politics involved than in lingering on the aching human engaged in the libidinal transactions. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 25, 2013
A tour de force of meticulous cruelty, a comic melodrama that elicits laughter and empathy and then replaces those responses with squirming discomfort. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloApr 24, 2013
For better and for worse—often simultaneously—few movies have been as unflinching about the ugly, heartbreaking ways human beings can mutually exploit one another for fun and/or profit. Read full review
60
Total FilmTom DawsonJun 9, 2013
Though it covers similar thematic ground to Laurent Cantet’s haiti-set "Heading South," Seidl’s gruelling film proves his knack for leaving viewers emotionally discomfited. Read full review
60
NPRMark JenkinsApr 25, 2013
Teresa's doggedness parallels the movie's own. Paradise: Love would be more compelling if it had a second act in which either its protagonist or one of her boy toys came to some sort of realization. Instead, Seidl's strategy is to reiterate and escalate, which is finally more exhausting than illuminating. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 23, 2013
Does the film tell us anything we didn't know already? And could anyone expect anything but the most straightforward irony in the title? The answer to both questions is no – but there is undoubted technique, and an authorial address to the audience. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenMay 2, 2013
The film is, perhaps, intended as a deadpan burlesque of race and class and beauty ideals...but it plays more as a boorish, overextended punch line. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyApr 23, 2013
Superficially provocative but ultimately pointless, this is one punishing vacation. Read full review
25
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeApr 26, 2013
Seidl sternly rejects nuance. All the women are crude and insensitive, all the men are desperate and exploited. Despite copious full-frontal nudity, it’s an unrelievedly puritanical and didactic film. Read full review
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