Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
Charming, witty, beautifully shot and inexplicably captivating. Read full review
The pangs of romance, eroticism, anguish, and longing (both for the stolen moments of private passion and for the sense-making schematics of Empire) transcend any period of cinema Tabu may evoke. Read full review
In Tabu, Portuguese writer-director Miguel Gomes spins a two-part tale examining love, loneliness and the power of memory. Read full review
The story is ornate but easy to follow. It's the dreamy look and sound of Tabu - half old, half modern - that give the film its haunting strangeness. Read full review
This blend of tongue-in-cheek exoticism and desire so strong it makes crocodiles melancholic amply rewards your patience. Read full review
Another charmingly eccentric exercise in meta-fiction from Portugal's offbeat new directing star Miguel Gomes, Tabu chooses to explore its characters without following narrative rules, or rather, by reshuffling hackneyed tropes from film and novels to turn them into strange, modern entertainment. Read full review
Shot in beautiful black and white with some stunning visuals, Gomes' narrative quest is a understated gem. Read full review
It's a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence – and also charming and funny. Read full review
A black-and-white fever dream, and, like all dreams, its meanings are elusive. It’s opaque, maddening, often pretentious, yet the pretensions may be on purpose, to push us away from the adulterous colonials at the story’s center and reveal the Africa they’re too obsessed with each other to see. Read full review
The whole second half suggests a new way of storytelling-like one of those Wes Anderson montages done by an obsessive fan of Hatari! To judge from Tabu's first hour, pacing is not Gomes's strong suit, yet the filmmaker who emerges might win you over. Read full review