82
Metascore
31 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorBoth leads fit their performances seamlessly into this destabilizing scheme, providing a provocative timelessness to the characters.
- 90New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinIt’s worth shaking off the incongruities and getting on the movie’s wavelength. Once Transit’s bitterly ironic vision takes hold, it eats into the mind.
- 88Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneChristian Petzold’s lean, rigorous filmmaking proves essential as the story begins to run, deliberately, in circles.
- 83The Film StageEd FranklThe Film StageEd FranklThis is a richly rewarding film, packed with ideas and riddles, that will surely benefit from repeat viewings.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThere is no denying that, initially, Transit’s story might feel excessively oblique. But as the film slowly puts its formalistic and thematic cards on the table, it becomes clear that its storytelling technique is really just a reflection of its core themes.
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichThe result is a film that lucidly traces the specter of fascism (never extinguished, always waiting to exhale), and how unreal it feels for it to cast its shadow across Europe once more. It’s also a film that feels stuck between stations, so doggedly theoretical that it borders on becoming glib.
- 67The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangBe prepared to be challenged by the glittering, allusive and often bewitching “Transit,” but also to be frustrated on discovering that even if you manage to piece it all together, in this particular crazy world the problems of three little people ultimately don’t amount to a hill of beans.
- Like all of his work, the writer/director’s fourth film in Berlinale competition is elegantly made, ingenious and intellectually challenging. Yet it’s also too much like hard work to be entirely satisfying and, dramatically, it suffers from the same condition as its protagonists: inertia.
- 40CineVuePatrick GambleCineVuePatrick GamblePetzold struggles to keep hold of the reigns, wielding the effects of melodrama with little to no precision or psychological acuity, and leaving the essential romance at the heart of the story to be rendered almost entirely unbelievable.