Phoenix
Sundance Selects | Release Date: July 24, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 6, 2015
The ending is stunning, a brilliant and forceful reclamation that doesn’t necessarily provide answers, but does provide hard-earned satisfaction. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiSep 2, 2015
Phoenix mines a Hitchcockian vein, but it is Hoss' sensitive performance and Petzold’s intelligently paced direction that makes this film shine. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 6, 2015
It is first and foremost a moral tale, and an overpowering one. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 14, 2014
Petzold's Phoenix is a high-concept premise executed as a heart-wrenching character piece. Read full review
83
ConsequenceBlake GobleJan 5, 2016
Phoenix is a death-defying melodrama of rare emotional obsession. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonMay 5, 2015
A gripping study of treachery, identity and survival. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernJul 23, 2015
The plot is just implausible enough to keep the film from greatness, but director Christian Petzold (Barbara) stirs up a powder-keg metaphor about rebuilding after war. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnSep 14, 2014
Hoss' portrayal of a woman at odds with her surroundings is in a class by itself. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 30, 2015
Phoenix is an intoxicating witches' brew, equal parts melodrama and moral parable, that audaciously mixes diverse elements to compelling, disturbing effect. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 6, 2015
The movie isn’t a thriller, but it still generates a strange sort of emotional suspense - an incredibly intense drama that makes you hold your breath, and it builds toward a total knockout of a final scene in which the story is resolved with hardly a word. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 14, 2015
The players and the situation (taken from a Hubert Monteilhet) novel make Phoenix an approachable, less-grueling Holocaust story than most. But the unreality of it all undoes some of that and makes this brief, smart and heartfelt story feel like a pulled-punch. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 28, 2015
If viewed as a literal narrative, the post-war German drama Phoenix, with its implausibilities and contrivances, works only so well. If viewed as an allegory, on the other hand, it ends up as something else entirely -- something intriguing, complex and altogether moving. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 24, 2015
A haunting, morbidly romantic melodrama with obvious links to "Vertigo," but from a reverse angle. Read full review
100
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeJul 23, 2015
More than a thriller, Phoenix is a ghost story, made plain in an extraordinary shot of Nelly’s terror at a passing train. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 13, 2015
There is intrigue. There is suspense. Guilt - a man's guilt, a nation's - hangs heavy in the air. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJan 5, 2016
German director Christian Petzold's new movie is a testament to the way textured performances and a skillfully woven script can entice a remarkable suspension of disbelief. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJul 24, 2015
A film this satisfying on every level — one that can be enjoyed purely for its narrative while also providing material for hours of discussion on its themes — is truly rare. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 20, 2015
It’s a delicious, yet far-fetched setup that pushes the limits of believability, even when we consider how powerful denial can be. But director Christian Petzold never loses control of his taut film. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineJames LattimerJul 19, 2015
Christian Petzold never luxuriates in all this film history, but rather channels the artifice and affect it embodies into new insights. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 22, 2015
For what it sets out to accomplish, across a brisk 98 minutes, Petzold’s film feels perfectly judged. And it builds to an ending that’s just plain perfect. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Nathalie AtkinsonMay 7, 2015
With a riveting performance-within-a-performance of subtle physicality by Nina Hoss, the charade in which a woman plays her own doppelganger certainly borrows tension, look and conventions from postwar film noir. Read full review
80
The GuardianRyan GilbeyJul 21, 2015
It’s a testament to Petzold’s sane head, steady hand and effortless storytelling skill that implausible plot-points are smuggled past us in their own blood-soaked bandages. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerSep 14, 2014
Both a powerful allegory for post-war regeneration and a rich Hitchcockian tale of mistaken identity, Phoenix once again proves that German filmmaker Christian Petzold and his favorite star, Nina Hoss, are clearly one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJul 23, 2015
Never less than intriguing, coolly intelligent and flawlessly paced, Phoenix often feels trapped in the logic of its conceit. Read full review
91
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicSep 14, 2014
Petzold distills a familiar atmosphere to create a work veiled in vibrant, cohesive, sensitively stimulating power. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJul 21, 2015
It works and then some, making for a noirish and complex emotional thriller. And Hoss is incredible, playing Nelly with the shuffling gait and haunted expression of a dead woman walking. Read full review
90
VarietyScott FoundasJan 13, 2015
Because Petzold is such a gifted storyteller, with the lean, driving narrative sense of the film noir masters, he also keeps those twists and turns chugging smoothly along, building to a climax so expertly orchestrated that one imagines he started with it in mind and worked the rest of the movie backward from there. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 21, 2015
The director's last film was the superb 2012 Barbara, also starring Hoss and Zehrfeld, another romance with a mystery built in; Phoenix is an even finer piece of work, so beautifully made that it comes close to perfect. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 30, 2015
Mr. Petzold, directing from a screenplay he and Harun Farocki based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet, has made a film of light and shadows that sometimes looks like a color version of “The Third Man,” and sometimes feels like a somber ode to Hitchcock. But Phoenix has no precise peers; it’s an original creation, and a haunting one. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryAug 6, 2015
Hoss’s breathtaking portrayal, especially in the film’s final minutes, makes it clear why director Christian Petzold has made a habit of working with her. Read full review
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