A claustrophobic dramatic reconstruction of a 22-hour shooting spree in the sleepy coastal town of Aramoana, New Zealand, that left 13 people dead.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2008

The usual dramatic affectations applied to such true-life material are largely absent; instead, Sarkies focuses on various quotidian elements that take on weight as the inevitable draws closer.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/6 | Oct 18, 2008

Brilliantly directed, thoroughly gripping thriller that is both deeply moving and genuinely terrifying -- this is one of the best films of the year.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2008

This is not a feel-good movie by any stretch, but it gets amazing marks on almost every front and really needs to be seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 24, 2008

Harrowing and heartbreaking, this is the film of the week by many a mile. Despite playing in just a handful of cinemas, I urge you to track it down.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 14, 2008

A strong drama clearly dedicated to exploring its real life events, if not hugely memorable in its own right.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 14, 2008

Scrupulously avoiding sensationalism, the film concentrates much less on the killer, than on the other locals engulfed in the tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2008

The massacre still touches a raw nerve in New Zealand but, filming at a neighbouring town and informed by survivors' accounts, Sarkies manages both a sensitive and excruciatingly taut docu-thriller that's refreshing for the genuine weight of its tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2008

In no way an easy watch, but as a meticulous record of a tragedy and the feats of bravery it inspired, this is an excellent movie.

| Mar 14, 2008

A haunting, uplifting and never-exploitative portrayal of a terrifying real-life tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2008

Compelling but flawed.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 12, 2008

It's not to say that the filmmakers should have resorted to pulp dramatics, but in correctly straining to not exploit their subjects, they forgot to fill in the spaces left behind.

| Nov 12, 2007

With his carefully controlled pacing and superb use of sound, Sarkies draws the viewer deep into the experience of a town caught completely off-guard by a kind of violence they could never have expected, and won't soon forget.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 19, 2007

Sarkies avoids the genre's conventional trappings and prefers instead to concentrate on the ways in which the people of Aramoana deal with the unfolding event.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2007

Robert Sarkies' dramatization of that event is as sensitive to its subject as it is stark in its rendering.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2007

Without such thematic resonance, it plays like a more elaborate version of one of the dramatic re-creations seen on any number of true-crime television programs.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2007

Like Steven Spielberg's historical epics, the film shows the nastiest incidents from a great distance, or cuts away before a bullet's impact to show an onlooker's shocked reaction. The director confronts horror without wallowing in it.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 19, 2007

The persistent attack of the lone, merciless gunman is reason enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2007

There's some nifty soft-focus cinematography and fine performances, but otherwise, not much to resonate on this side of the pond.

| Oct 16, 2007

Suggests a Folgers Crystals commercial with a body count.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 8, 2007