“About Elly” is a near hypnotic experience whether it’s the fascinating mystery akin to Antonioni’s brilliant “L’Avventura” or the stimulating character study/morality play that puts each character under a microscope.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

Farhadi peels back layer after layer of the story to heighten the dramatic stakes, gradually revealing his cultural commentary.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 20, 2022

Farhadi once again reveals himself to be a master of the morality tale, beautiful presenting a series of encounters in which each character is morally and ethically questioned.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2019

This is a tale of great emotional depth with intriguing philosophical discussions about the nature of despair, the value of individual choice and deception.

| Nov 1, 2018

Simple, elegant, and yet incredibly complicated and tense. The action, the bombs, and the drama are all in the details. If you do not catch every word, change of tone, and glance, you'll miss a huge psychological, political, cultural explosion.

| Aug 28, 2018

The set-up recalls Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura but this mystery becomes a vehicle for social drama and sharp observations of friendships and marriages under pressure.

| Feb 12, 2016

Clever, compassionate, and completely riveting.

| Jan 2, 2016

The film is both riveting and resonant in overwhelming measures, and will remain one of the best released this year.

| Nov 11, 2015

This is a well-written, directed and acted film. The camera work by Hossein Jafarian is excellent. The story has a lot of sustained drama and mystery. Many women will view this very differently than most men in the audience.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 5, 2015

[The film has] a flair for the quietly theatrical and the conviction that various codes of gender and honour (religious, tribal, legal, or whatever) outweigh human connections in moments of extreme stress.

| Aug 25, 2015

About Elly stands as another strong example of one of the world's true emerging talents.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2015

Farhadi has written a first-rate script, enabling intricate plotting to intertwine with well-defined characters, and "About Elly" shows him at ease with the wide variety of situations his writing explores.

| Jul 9, 2015

The director is as concerned with gender politics and the effects of moral traditions as he is with telling a riveting drama.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jul 2, 2015

Discoveries drive the viewing experience, with layers peeled masterfully by Farhadi, who guides an exceptional cast to realistic stages of shock and sadness.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 1, 2015

By the time the mystery is solved, it hardly seems to matter. What matters is the casual lack of honesty that almost everyone seems to depend on.

| Original Score: A | Jun 26, 2015

If you don't know the work of Asghar Farhadi, you should.

| Jun 24, 2015

Group mentality reaches for one lie after another in Iranian tale

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 12, 2015

Farahani, the standout among the cast, has a face Hollywood will soon be touting and can suffer on camera in ways the neorealists would have loved.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 22, 2015

It's an incisive portrait of a particular society, but it should resonate everywhere.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 20, 2015

"About Elly" is further certification that Farhadi is one of the world's finest filmmakers.

| Original Score: A- | May 10, 2015