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Alynda Wheat, People: OUTSTANDING (cg) "The younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley shows breathtaking range... the beauty of Elizabeth Olsen's star-making performance is inarguable." (Read the full review...) 144 words, 10/20/11 Mary Pols, Time: OUTSTANDING "...there's a 'holy smokes!' quality to Elizabeth Olsen's performance that evokes the exciting contradictions of early Kate Winslet: curvy but delicate, dewy-fresh yet totally in charge. These are the times that call for the phrase 'A star is born.' " (Read the full review...) 494 words, 10/21/11 Christy Lemire, Associated Press: OUTSTANDING (cg) "Writer/director Sean Durkin is an exciting filmmaker to watch, having made a movie about a tawdry, tabloid-ready topic without injecting an ounce of sensationalism.... a film that is far and away one of the year's best." (Read the full review...) 567 words, 10/20/11 Mara Reinstein, Us Weekly: OUTSTANDING (cg) "Each moment of this mesmerizing chiller is filled with dread, including the unsettling (if abrupt) conclusion. In a movie about lost identity, Elizabeth Olsen has found hers as an acting force." (Read the full review...) 87 words, 10/20/11 Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: EXCELLENT (cg) "...leaves a viewer hanging, quite literally, lost in an enveloping fog of mood without resolution. Olsen, meanwhile, definitely marks her arrival. She leaves a viewer excited about the creative future of a young actor who looks like she knows exactly who she is and what she can do." (Read the full review...) 702 words, 10/21/11 Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: OUTSTANDING (cg) "Elizabeth Olsen is an actress of uncommon subtlety and feeling. It's a sensational performance in a gripping psychological thriller, from gifted first-time writer-director Sean Durkin..." (Read the full review...) 320 words, 10/28/11 Claudia Puig, USA Today: VERY GOOD (cg) "A naturalistic and moody meditation on identity, youthful idealism and the yearning for family... a truly haunting tale reinforcing the notion that nothing is more terrifying than fear itself." (Read the full review...) 416 words, 10/21/11 Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...a good film, ambitious and effective, introducing a gifted young actress and a director whose work I'll anticipate.... Elizabeth Olsen can know that no one will ever ask, 'Which one is she?' " (Read the full review...) 975 words, 10/28/11 Kat Murphy, MSN Movies: EXCELLENT (cg) "...pulses with cumulative dread, teasing our nerve endings with scrabbling spider-feet of unease... among the best films of 2011." (Read the full review...) 792 words, 10/18/11 James Berardinelli, Reel Views: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...a challenging, emotionally riveting experience, even if the conclusion dangles at the edge of an unresolvable cliffhanger." (Read the full review...) 847 words, 10/26/11
A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...an impressive piece of work without achieving quite the emotional impact it intends. We are witnessing not the disintegration of a personality, but rather the careful construction of a series of effects." (Read the full review...) 804 words, 10/21/11 Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: EXCELLENT (cg) "For most of her life, Elizabeth Olsen has been known, if at all, as the younger sibling of two very famous twin sisters. As of today, that's going to change." (Read the full review...) 234 words, 10/21/11 Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...like life itself, 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' is a film of rough edges and no easy answers, nearly perfect in its imperfection." (Read the full review...) 958 words, 10/21/11 Kyle Smith, New York Post: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...carries great allegorical weight as it echoes the Manson Family, the long list of failed utopian communes that culminated in Bolshevism and the one-child policy that in China has prevented the births of untold numbers of girls." (Read the full review...) 716 words, 10/21/11 Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...supple and unnerving.... writer-director Sean Durkin immerses the viewer in a fluid state of psychological dissolution, keeping us very close to one woman's experience in a cult by any other name." (Read the full review...) 647 words, 10/28/11 Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: OUTSTANDING (cg) "Mesmerizing and unsettling, with an unexpectedly riveting performance from Ashley and Mary-Kate's sister." (Read the full review...) 391 words, 11/04/11 David Edelstein, New York Magazine: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...even if Elizabeth Olsen is getting so much attention because she's kin to Mary-Kate and Ashley, her performance earns it.... [but] the non-ending turns the whole movie into an elaborate tease, too creepy to dismiss, too shallow to justify its 'ambiguities.' " (Read the full review...) 253 words, 10/17/11 Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...a good film, ambitious and effective, introducing a gifted young actress and a director whose work I'll anticipate.... Elizabeth Olsen can know that no one will ever ask, 'Which one is she?' " (Read the full review...) 975 words, 10/28/11 J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: VERY GOOD "...a deft, old-school psychological thriller (or perhaps horror film) that relies mainly on the power of suggestion and memories of hippie cult crazies." (Read the full review...) 638 words, 10/19/11 Peter Howell, Toronto Star: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...to say the film is simply about cults is to miss the subtle alchemy wrought by writer/director Sean Durkin in this brilliant debut feature... he gets us wondering about the unseen chains of what we call free will and liberty." (Read the full review...) 710 words, 10/28/11 Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD (cg) "...a movie of many m-words - memories, mirrors and madness." (Read the full review...) 619 words, 10/28/11 Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT (cg) "The ending will piss off a lot of people, but I think it's perfect." (Read the full review...) 184 words, 10/27/11
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: VERY GOOD (cg) "Writer-director Sean Durkin makes a filmmaking debut every bit as compelling and assured as his leading lady. Shot in long, quiet takes of bucolic idylls... sneaks up on viewers with a barely perceptible sense of oncoming dread." (Read the full review...) 479 words, 10/28/11 Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...moves from its protagonist's dream state to her memories to her waking present in imperceptible shifts - the effect is disorienting, at first, but ingenious. We're as rattled and wary as Martha is..." (Read the full review...) 426 words, 10/28/11 Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: OUTSTANDING (cg) "From first scene to last, Olsen makes the journey through all her moods and guises a mesmerizing and chilling experience and turns a cryptic film into an unforgettable one." (Read the full review...) 402 words, 11/11/11 Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD (cg) "...compulsively watchable... a psychological thriller camouflaged as an Ingmar Bergman-style country-house drama." (Read the full review...) 448 words, 11/04/11 Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: OUTSTANDING (cg) "Durkin's confidence is amazing... his patience, doling out bits and pieces of information slowly, builds tension while giving us what we need when we need it." (Read the full review...) 649 words, 11/04/11 Ty Burr, Boston Globe: VERY GOOD (cg) "...we spend 101 minutes trying to get into the head of a woman who's trying her hardest to keep us out.... The film has its gimmicky aspects but Olsen is haunting: She grounds the slim premise and makes it worthwhile." (Read the full review...) 738 words, 10/28/11 Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: GOOD (NOT GREAT) (cg) "Elizabeth Olsen is always in control.... So is John Hawkes as the hollow-cheeked leader of her dangerous upstate family.... It's the story itself that doesn't have enough going for it, and so resorts to flashy style - until finally petering out in a badly staged ending..." (Read the full review...) 406 words, 10/21/11 Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: POOR (cg) "...a drama that's disturbing and yet inert.... two long hours of murky photography and slow-motion storytelling, in which the audience is always 10 scenes ahead of the action." (Read the full review...) 257 words, 10/28/11 Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...gets under your skin and burrows there; you can't quite shake it off.... a nightmare and its aftermath blurring together. This young woman can run but, right up to the film's enigmatic final shot, she can't find anywhere to hide." (Read the full review...) 378 words, 10/28/11 Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...hitches an insightful, cleverly structured script to a star-making performance from Elizabeth Olsen..." (Read the full review...) 231 words, 11/04/11 Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: VERY GOOD (cg) "...delivers enough conventional shocks to placate people who wouldn't ordinarily see a Sundance movie." (Read the full review...) 364 words, 11/04/11 Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: EXCELLENT (cg) "...the movie always fascinates thanks to Elizabeth Olsen, who'll never be just a semifamous sister again." (Read the full review...) 271 words, 11/17/11 Tom Long, Detroit News: EXCELLENT (cg) "...ends on a question; but, in truth, it rides questions throughout. The answers are in the actors' eyes." (Read the full review...) 312 words, 11/04/11 Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...gradually places us inside the mind of a woman who just might be insane... in its audacious, terrifying final scene, the movie traps us there in perpetuity, refusing to provide the viewer with a way out." (Read the full review...) 578 words, 10/21/11
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: VERY GOOD "...a deft, old-school psychological thriller (or perhaps horror film) that relies mainly on the power of suggestion and memories of hippie cult crazies." (Read the full review...) 638 words, 10/19/11 Katey Rich, Cinema Blend: EXCELLENT (cg) "See it for Elizabeth Olsen's breakthrough performance and Sean Durkin's keen cinematic eye, and be surprised by how a movie this delicate and small can linger." (Read the full review...) 614 words, 10/19/11 Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...coldly confident, insidiously haunting... personal identity can be a fragile thing. Especially when you're not much interested in hanging onto it in the first place." (Read the full review...) 550 words, 10/27/11 Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...another uncommonly intelligent provocation from the guys at Borderline Films, which also gave us 'Afterschool'... one of the best films at Sundance; it's the best I've seen at Cannes as well." (Read the full review...) 319 words, 05/16/11 Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline: EXCELLENT (cg) "...what makes 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' so beguiling -- aside from the performance given by its lead actress, Elizabeth Olsen -- is that the pall of creepy groupthink that hovers over that first scene works as a perverse kind of seduction..." (Read the full review...) 1,085 words, 10/18/11 Jaime N. Christley, Slant: WEAK (cg) "...seems almost to have been produced spontaneously, by gears of a larger system as they mesh together right this instant, culled from the ether with the words 'Customers Who Also Liked 'Dogtooth' and 'Winter's Bone' Liked This'..." (Read the full review...) 677 words, 10/10/11 Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: EXCELLENT (cg) "The ending will piss off a lot of people, but I think it's perfect." (Read the full review...) 184 words, 10/27/11 Curt Holman, Atlanta Creative Loafing: EXCELLENT (cg) "...finds the atmosphere of menace in situations when a group pressures its members to conform." (Read the full review...) 575 words, 11/03/11 MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...it's the rarity of what 'Martha' attempts -- and succeeds wildly at -- that makes it so enormously satisfying, if disconcerting.... There is no easy rescue here. There is no revenge." (Read the full review...) 1,143 words, 11/08/11
A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...an impressive piece of work without achieving quite the emotional impact it intends. We are witnessing not the disintegration of a personality, but rather the careful construction of a series of effects." (Read the full review...) 804 words, 10/21/11 Anthony Lane, New Yorker: VERY GOOD "What writer/director Sean Durkin is seeking to construct, without resorting to comic books, is a pagan fable -- one of tribal ferocity, sacrifice, and the promise of rebirth -- bang in the middle of a modern setting." (Read the full review...) 1,610 words, 10/17/11 Ella Taylor, NPR: GOOD "...less a film of ideas than an adroit use of film language and performance to track the breakdown of a sense of self that may have been wobbly to start with." (Read the full review...) 630 words, 10/20/11 Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...like life itself, 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' is a film of rough edges and no easy answers, nearly perfect in its imperfection." (Read the full review...) 958 words, 10/21/11 Dana Stevens, Slate: MODERATE "...[a] would-be study of a Manson-like cult and its effect on the life of a mentally unstable woman... the final result (especially, but not exclusively, the ending) is too elliptical... dangles the promise of meaning that never arrives." (Read the full review...) 984 words, 10/20/11 Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: OUTSTANDING "...creepy, powerful.... a dark, intelligent, beautifully crafted shocker that will burrow its way into your unconscious and stay there." (Read the full review...) 463 words, 05/18/11
Peter Debruge, Daily Variety: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "The largely elliptical script feels a few drafts shy of focus, with the thriller elements undermining the juicier questions of why one joins a cult and how life can go back to normal later..." (Read the full review...) 879 words, 01/22/11 David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: EXCELLENT "...mesmerizing... marks an assured feature debut for writer-director Sean Durkin.... a smart, suspenseful reflection on the insidious way cults operate and the psychological vulnerabilities on which they prey." (Read the full review...) 837 words, 01/21/11 Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...like life itself, 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' is a film of rough edges and no easy answers, nearly perfect in its imperfection." (Read the full review...) 958 words, 10/21/11 Patrick Z. McGavin, Cinema 24/7: OUTSTANDING (cg) "...a formally audacious and visually sophisticated debut from the gifted young filmmaker Sean Durkin.... a disquieting and frightening portrait of surrender and coercion." (Read the full review...) 777 words, 01/30/11 A.O. Scott, New York Times: VERY GOOD "...an impressive piece of work without achieving quite the emotional impact it intends. We are witnessing not the disintegration of a personality, but rather the careful construction of a series of effects." (Read the full review...) 804 words, 10/21/11
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Opening Soon (Early Figures)
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