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Beyond the Hills Review

Movies.com Critics

4.5

Dave White Profile

The "devils," inside and otherwise... Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 4.0
    79

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally favorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 60

    out of 100

    Variety Justin Chang

    Observing the situation at an icy remove, Beyond the Hills never builds the palpable menace and pressure-cooker anxiety of "4 Months," and its dramatic progression feels obvious, even predictable, by comparison.

    Read Full Review

  • 70

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter

    Beyond the Hills is less fun than any film about lesbian nuns and their psychotic ex-lovers ought to be. But it is an engrossingly serious work, and confirms Mungiu as a maturing talent with more universal stories to tell than those defined by Romania’s recent political past.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

    It's tempting to see Beyond the Hills solely as an indictment of religion, but the film is more ambitious than that. Ignorance and superstition aren't confined to the convent; people in town, including the cops, drop casual references to witchcraft as if it were part of everyday life. The broader subject is possession by primitive ideas.

    Read Full Review

  • 88

    out of 100

    Chicago Sun-Times

    Beyond the Hills is an arthouse film from Romania, yet, in its slow, lurching progress toward a tragic exorcism, it is a stylistic nephew of America's "The Exorcist."

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  • 88

    out of 100

    Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

    Of all the movies culminating in a rite of exorcism, Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu's remarkable Beyond the Hills stands alone.

    Read Full Review

  • 90

    out of 100

    Village Voice Scott Foundas

    The haunting final image suggests how quickly such stories can be lost...which makes Beyond the Hills, above all else, a powerful and necessary act of reclamation.

    Read Full Review

  • See all Beyond the Hills reviews at Metacritic.com

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Fan Reviews provided by

Average Rating: 4.167
Read all reviews Write a review at Fandango
4

VERY TOUGH BUT EXCELLENT FILM FROM ROMANIA, REVOLVING AROUND A VERY CONSERVATIVE APPROACH TO RELIGION! by Peneflix
A challenging, morose, metaphysical, metaphorical film by Christian Mungiu (?4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?); not for those looking for fluff or fantasy... Based on an historical event in Romania (2005); atmospherically medieval, somber (much like ?The Turin Horse?); a monastery (The New Hill) devoid of electricity, plumbing; water dredged from a well, technology has not brushed the ?nuns?, living in primitive, archaic ?cells?, but contented with their conversion, they have shed all vestiges of a contemporary, consumer society; led by an Orthodox self-ordained priest (Valerin Andriuta), affectionately referred to as ?Papa?; their minimalist existence is informed by renunciation, excoriation of the world; accepting only the divine portents of the Bible... THREE & 1/2 STARS!!! ***For full review please visit peneflix (dot) com!!!

Read all Beyond the Hills reviews at Fandango
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