As in latter-period Buñuel, [Claire] Denis leaves out crucial pieces of information. I was never in doubt that she knew what she was doing, but I wasn't always sure why she was doing it. I'm still not, but I was spellbound.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 24, 2024

Formulates a chimeric disquisition on the things that divide us - the self-imposed limitations and expectations cultivated by fear and ignorance - which result in their own form of emotional confinement.

| May 20, 2022

It's so vital and elastic that it offers up more secrets and epiphanies every time.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 26, 2021

An expansive reflection on the pleasures and dangers of boundary violation...Human and animal, past and present, life and death, dreams and waking life: in L'intrus, every threshold is there to be crossed.

| Mar 22, 2021

The Intruder, however sketchy its plot or character motivations, is lavishly mounted, and will not fail to engage the mind and the eye on the huge Castro screen...

| May 11, 2020

Denis is one of cinema's greatest narrative poets, and The Intruder, the story of an adventurer, is her most adventurous cinematic poem.

| Nov 19, 2013

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Mar 19, 2013

A film that's so recondite, it's barely there.

| Mar 1, 2007

yet another meandering piece of existentialism, signifying nothing except for what you're willing to project onto it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 12, 2006

It's one of those films where it's best to go with its maddening elegiac but elusive flow and let whatever comes to you be enough.

| Original Score: B+ | May 1, 2006

While it may take a few viewings to sort the details out, much about L'Intrus lingers, shimmering quietly in the memory.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2006

... may be a spy thriller, a tale of redemption, or the fever dream of a heart patient haunted by his paternal failures of the past. To reduce Denis’ elusive and elliptical drama to any kind of literal plot, however, misses the point.

| Original Score: A | Apr 6, 2006

This is self-consciously intricate, but even if the storyline occasionally confuses, it's impossible not to admire Agnès Godard's glorious photography and the atmospheric soundtrack.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

An interior epic with epic exteriors, a film with very little dialogue, where the pictures (photographed by the great Agnès Godard), actors and the juxtaposition of both tell the story.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2006

Using very little dialogue, [Denis] focuses on casting a lingering, physically enticing spell.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 31, 2006

Visually ravishing and all-but-impenetrable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 17, 2006

Never has Denis demanded so much from audiences as with this shimmering enigma, at once intimate and epic, but it's worth the effort and then some.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 16, 2006

A beautiful, complex work that challenges viewers to mentally sift interior and exterior journeys.

| Mar 16, 2006

Denis' film -- which may be her most intricately constructed and intensely beautiful to date -- is one that transcends words and stories, a movie to be felt rather than rationalized.

| Mar 16, 2006

...an aesthetic mystery that requires at least two viewings to fully figure out. Luckily, the film is fun along the way.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2006