Tabu
Adopt Films | Release Date: December 26, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 31, 2012
If you have the patience to watch this film develop and unfold, like some bizarre night-blooming orchid, what you'll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all. Read full review
100
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicDec 27, 2012
Charming, witty, beautifully shot and inexplicably captivating. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineJohn SemleyDec 14, 2012
The pangs of romance, eroticism, anguish, and longing (both for the stolen moments of private passion and for the sense-making schematics of Empire) transcend any period of cinema Tabu may evoke. Read full review
95
NPRIan BuckwalterDec 27, 2012
In Tabu, Portuguese writer-director Miguel Gomes spins a two-part tale examining love, loneliness and the power of memory. Read full review
90
Village VoiceEric HynesJan 2, 2013
Tabu manages to be both classical and modern, ironic and heartbreaking. Read full review
90
VarietyJay WeissbergDec 14, 2012
Even more than in "Our Beloved Month of August," Miguel Gomes begins Tabu in a seemingly ridiculous vein and unexpectedly shifts to something surprisingly enriching and poetic. Read full review
88
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeJan 4, 2013
The story is ornate but easy to follow. It's the dreamy look and sound of Tabu - half old, half modern - that give the film its haunting strangeness. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 7, 2013
The black-and-white cinematography and silent-film feel are haunting and nostalgic, and Aurora's story encapsulates a broader, bittersweet truth about the perils of tinted memory. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 27, 2012
Like other great pastiche artists, Gomes has created a time machine to a cinematic era that never quite existed, so it feels simultaneously borrowed and new. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonDec 14, 2012
Shot in beautiful black and white with some stunning visuals, Gomes' narrative quest is a understated gem. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 14, 2012
It's a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence – and also charming and funny. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungDec 14, 2012
Another charmingly eccentric exercise in meta-fiction from Portugal's offbeat new directing star Miguel Gomes, Tabu chooses to explore its characters without following narrative rules, or rather, by reshuffling hackneyed tropes from film and novels to turn them into strange, modern entertainment. Read full review
80
Total FilmCarmen GrayDec 14, 2012
This blend of tongue-in-cheek exoticism and desire so strong it makes crocodiles melancholic amply rewards your patience. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 15, 2013
A black-and-white fever dream, and, like all dreams, its meanings are elusive. It’s opaque, maddening, often pretentious, yet the pretensions may be on purpose, to push us away from the adulterous colonials at the story’s center and reveal the Africa they’re too obsessed with each other to see. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJan 24, 2013
At first Tabu is intriguing. But the enigma gets wearing as the director's attention is divided between the homage to the silent film era and the film's underlying exploration of the regret of old age. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 27, 2012
The whole second half suggests a new way of storytelling-like one of those Wes Anderson montages done by an obsessive fan of Hatari! To judge from Tabu's first hour, pacing is not Gomes's strong suit, yet the filmmaker who emerges might win you over. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 26, 2012
It is, of course, art rather than history - an elegant composition of dreams, memories and suggestive images - but its artfulness seems like an alibi, an excuse for keeping the ugliness of history out of the picture. Read full review
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