Popular reviews

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 18

  One of the sincerest films I've ever seen, a quality earning it an immediate spot amongst my favourite films of all time.

  Leviathan is a bleak condemnation of orthodox religion, the pettiness of self gain and the corruptive nature of power. It is a film that tells its story with an unrelenting and startling sincerity, something I greatly admire in any film, but done to the quality it is done here, it left me angry, melancholic, empty, moved and above all deeply impressed.

  Director Andrey Zvyagintsev and his team have crafted a film that is paced astonishingly well and looks breathtaking. The cold, grey cinematography and the impeccable attention to detail in creating this slice of Russian life both add…

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  Review by reibureibu ★★★★★ 12

  "All power is from God. Where there's power, there's might."

  God is great. God is good. But in our earthly realm often God is simply power, the entwinement of church and state making this a reality we stare at everyday.

  But how does it come to this? This blatant corruption of religion and government through the covetous vultures that circle above? The same vultures who perch atop the hierarchical ladder which allow us illusory dreams of climbing it ourselves but peck at our fingers when we reach out above. Indeed, the structures are as stratified as they ever were, effectively feudal systems disguised as papier-mâché republics. Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, we may have moved on in time but we are…

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  Review by Jonathan White ★★★★★ 48

  TIFF 2014 film #12

  Reason for pick: Director Andrey Zvyagintsev, Elena

  As my friends know, I usually go completely blind into films, especially at TIFF. My lovely wife does the hard work of picking based on our ( almost universally ) shared taste. Thus, I usually don’t go in with much anticipation. Leviathan was an exception. When I found out that it was on this year’s roster I was positively giddy. We had just watched Zvyagintsev’s Elena a few weeks ago, and I was amazed and refreshed at how well executed it was stylistically, narratively, and thematically.

  Preceding the screening, director Zvyagintsev is introduced and bounds out onto the stage in a manner reminiscent of Roberto Benigni. This guy is…

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  Review by 24framesofnick ★★★★★ 2

  I’ve honestly never seen a movie with acting that doesn’t feel like acting. It’s like this movie just found a drunk chaotic family with issues and started recording all of their issues. It feels so insanely authentic to the point where you wanna cry just looking at them drown out their problems in any way they can

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★

  Some of the most beautiful cinematography of all-time...

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  Review by Stewie Griffin ★★★★★ 38

  the sun is fading
  beneath those hefty clouds
  its light dwindling as the winds shiver.

  i’ll take a smoke, go for a ride, meet a friend 

  we chat, we drink, we reminisce;
  it’s fun to recollect on such gloomy days…
  …

  the sun has faded
  beneath those hefty clouds,
  its warmth perished along with it.

  the winds are colder, sadder;
  their tears touch my skin like rain-
  -as i gush down my seventh glass of vodka‘

  ‘betrayal, depart, disclosure fill my blood till i burst!
  red hot, i pour myself another drink, hoping the pain fades-
  -as the sun did, but instead it soars, more than ever…

  power, might, authority,
  all inventions of men,
  which crumble upon the face of…

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  Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★★ 31

  #5 out of 6 recommendations by Twitch followers

  Recommended by agustin.

  "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
  -Galatians 6:7

  This is one of the funniest dark comedies of the decade.

  Zvyagintsev has proven seemingly effotlessly in the past that concocting extraordinary cinematography is the easiest task if you have achieved balance between nature and storytelling. Landscapes are not in the background of the story; they are placed in the foreground with equal force than the characters, because this is a story driven by the powers of circumstance, causality and responsibility. Landscapes correlate with the feelings of the characters and the ideological apparatus behind, which I will treat later. A…

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  Review by Bruno ★★★★½ 13

  Leviathan is a fascinating tale of corruption and betrayal, relying on some intriguing visual allegories and symbolisms as a way to propel the story. I was surprised by the great amount of witty humor in the first portion of the film, which proved to be very entertaining, also serving as a display of helplessness towards the abuse of power and corruption that surround the town. Then, we follow the destructive paths some of the characters end up taking and the film becomes truly somber. The performances are all top notch and we are rewarded with some of the most breathtaking cinematography ever shown on screen. Director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s geniality consists in leaving it up to the viewer to decide what to make of the fate of these people, ending the picture with a very clever and tragically ironic turn of events. Leviathan is one of the year’s finest films and an absolute must-see!

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 2

  Relentlessly chilly, although echoing with a restrained heartbeat, Leviathan is a grandiose and heart-wrenching take on Orthodox religion and the corruption that weaves within its system and those who attend. Andrey Zvyagintsev (I'm laughing at myself trying to pronounce his name) paints an epic picture of genuine characters, incidents of fate, and masterful sequences of delicate restraint and wispy visual interactions.

  Each frame is finely tuned, with Mikhail Krichman's cinematography tackling intimate portrayals of troubled family dynamics and desolate landscapes with an almost omnipresent view. The imagery here, at many moments, feels as if God is sneaking a peek through the majestic clouds.

  The direction goes hand in hand with this view, favoring wide, expansive shots over closeups and narrow…

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  Review by nick ★★★

  Leviathan ultimately feels underwhelming despite being Andrey Zvyagintsev's most ambitious work. It touches on many recurrent themes in Zvyagintsev's filmography, from adolescence to infidelity, this time with heavy input of political and religious undercurrents, yet it fails to leave an impression regardless.

  Obviously Zvyagintsev's most politically adventurous output, Leviathan transforms a real life American story of rebel with a Russian setting. With his trademarks of microscopic insights and breathtaking cinematography, Zvyagintsev created another one of his equal parts suffocating and inviting metaphorical world where abuse of power and corruption are the norm, and the protagonists are forced to rage against the machine while juggling the earth-shattering events inside the household. The acting from the Russian ensemble was mighty enough to…

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  Review by Catus ★★★★★ 1

  Andrei Zvyagintsev meets Michael Haneke on a Tinder date and they both fuck on Joker makeup immediately after killing an innocent child.

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  Review by ༘ ade ༘ ★★★★½ 9

  Bellissimo mwah mwah mwaaah

  ♡〜٩( ˃́▿˂̀ )۶〜♡