69
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondPart fond remembrance of an early-’80s Leningrad rock scene and part glam-rock fever dream, Leto asks an audience to surrender to excess and at times to silliness, and it richly rewards them for doing so.
- 80Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangFor a movie about a fleeting moment, it leaves a surprisingly resilient ache.
- 80Leto is one of those movies that whisks us into a world that feels both familiar and fresh, like a sense memory of a life we might have lived if we’d been born in another decade or on another continent.
- 75IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIt’s a shambling, transportive, and semi-tragic story about a fleeting past where anything seemed possible.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinAt heart, it's more concerned with capturing the feel of the early '80s, the paranoia but also spirit of communal life in crowded apartment blocks.
- 70VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeIf not as overtly political as “The Student,” Leto nonetheless represents about as flamboyant a statement of free artistic expression as Serebrennikov could make at this moment: There’s certainly nothing contained or inhibited about its celebration of artists who themselves were given little support or leeway by the Soviet government.
- 67The A.V. ClubA.A. DowdThe A.V. ClubA.A. DowdWhat Leto understands is that the lives of these Russian rock pioneers never approached the excess and flashbulb excitement their American and British counterparts enjoyed. Steadicamming through modest concert venues and studio spaces, the film replaces the melodrama of the typical rock biopic with lots of downtime, spent recording and talking about music.
- 60CineVueMartyn ConterioCineVueMartyn ConterioSerebrennikov...has a great eye for composition and crafting a set piece, but the meandering pace and loose approach to storytelling makes his second feature akin to an album front loaded with banging tunes and the rest is filler.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawLeto is a film with some wonderful moments and some slightly forgettable stretches – like an album with one or two wonderful tracks.
- 60Screen DailyJonathan RomneyScreen DailyJonathan RomneyThe film’s energy and passion (and no doubt, eye for detail) can’t be faulted, but a tighter film could have more pointedly made the connection between the subjects’ brief lifespans and the fate of a young culture of refusal that arguably died when the system it questioned was replaced by a differently oppressive social order.