Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
The surface of Oslo, August 31st is as cool and crystalline as a Scandinavian lake, but at its core is a benevolence for the life we all share and tears for the man who can no longer share in it. Read full review
Oslo, August 31st is quietly, profoundly, one of the most observant and sympathetic films I've seen. Read full review
Trier's compassion for what it takes to survive, mixed with the love he bestows on Oslo, is rewardingly profound. Read full review
The evocation of things ending suffuses the film with melancholy, as Anders increasingly becomes an observant rather than a participant in his own life. Read full review
Trier's all in a calendar-day conceit gives Oslo, August 31a clean, clear structure, and yet it doesn't hem it in. Read full review
Despite its themes, Oslo, August 31st is an exhilarating film, with impeccable direction and pitch-perfect performances that make the bleakness worthwhile. Read full review
Trier's voice and vision, are thrillingly unique. His ever-searching camera, which never stops moving, takes us into places we've never been, know too well and won't soon forget. Read full review
As it winds down to its quiet, haunting finale, Oslo, August 31st illustrates how all of us, even the most damaged and broken people, have a purpose to fulfill. Read full review
The impressive thing that Oslo, August 31st does is that it somehow relates what Anders is going through to the city of Oslo in general. Anders is not a metaphor for Oslo - that would be cheap and silly. Rather, he is just one more story in the naked city, and we see him against the backdrop of other people, having quite different lives. Read full review
The movie falls somewhere between the austere and the playful. Read full review
4.5
Dave White Profile
Goin' down the stony end Read full review