Polina
Oscilloscope Laboratories | Release Date: August 25, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 24, 2017
The creative process is always an elusive thing for filmmakers to capture, but amid all the startling visuals and the splendid acting, Polina rises, gloriously, to the challenge. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 23, 2017
The film conveys energy, color, and movement from start to finish, irrespective of whether Polina is dancing, bartending, or trying to catch a few moments of sleep in a laundromat. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleClaudia BauerSep 14, 2017
Polina is spare in dialogue; more is conveyed through painterly wide-screen cinematography by Georges Lechaptois. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 31, 2017
As Polina, Shevstova delivers a performance that feels wonderfully unforced, if that’s the right word, in a role that can only be called “driven.” There’s almost an emptiness about her character. Polina’s expression of self is all on the surface — at least initially. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 25, 2017
The most important thing Polina does—and it is testament, again, to the involvement of Preljocaj, a man who has devoted his life to dance—is that it shows that the everyday life of an artist is not made up of catharsis and accomplishment, triumphs and breakthroughs. Those moments only come after years of hard work, of failing and trying again. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenAug 31, 2017
Shevtsova, until recently a dancer with the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, doesn’t quite pierce the narrative’s two-dimensionality. Through Preljocaj’s ecstatic choreography, though, she goes deep, and Polina’s story finds its language and its pulse. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 23, 2017
If this film’s directors, Valérie Müller and the French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, don’t offer much overt material on Polina’s inner life, it’s because they don’t have to: the point of Polina, and this movie, is that her dancing is her being. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansDec 25, 2018
Though the film suggests a hardiness borne of her working-class background and mobster father, Polina remains fairly opaque. At least the contemporary dance sequences are beautifully mounted; French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj has a co-director credit on the film. Read full review
60
Village VoiceElizabeth ZimmerAug 24, 2017
Images planted early in the film betray the path Polina will take; when we watch her move freely in the woods and commune with a moose, we guess that ballet may not be the last stop on her professional train. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 24, 2017
Polina is vivid as dance but vague as drama. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 1, 2017
The movie often seems on the verge of being interesting but repeatedly retreats into a formless vapidity. Read full review
50
Slant MagazinePeter GoldbergAug 24, 2017
Even its sensitive and gorgeous choreographies can't fully offer respite from the hollow narrative. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 25, 2018
Despite the panache with which the dance sequences are presented, it is frustratingly inert dramatically. Read full review
More From This Movie

65 Critic Reviews

5.0 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL