63
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasOver a difficult three-hour sprawl, Cristi Puiu's Aurora fully explores the time before and after a killer strikes, and it has the cumulative effect of making what passes for a "motive" seem absurdly simplistic.
- 80The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisA quiet, steady burn filled with stretches of unsettlingly reverberant silence cleaved in half by a midpoint eruption of violence. Here there is before, and then there is after.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoThe film takes its time detailing his mundane activities, often withholding the kind of information audiences usually expect, and it's Puiu's talent to transform it all into a highly disturbing portrait - both of an individual and a society.
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanCall it a mental workout that (although considerably less arduous than reading Sartre) some might find exhausting and others exhilarating. Aurora is not a movie to make you glad that you exist; it's a movie that makes you aware that you do.
- 63Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerSlant MagazineAndrew SchenkerWhat Puiu seems to be suggesting is that the complexities of human behavior and relationships are beyond the power of the law to comprehend, but are they also beyond the power of the cinema?
- 40New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMaddeningly mundane, this Romanian drama aims for an antiseptic look at random violence and, unfortunately, achieves it.
- 20Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfPuiu offers zero insight into his character; only suckers will find the pose artful or nourishing. Skip it.