A clear-eyed and piercing denunciation of clerical abuse in the French Catholic Church by queer auteur François Ozon.

| Dec 7, 2022

Ozon's film is only lightly fictionalised, based on his thorough research, and transcripts. His writing and his direction are full of empathy, tied to these characters.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 12, 2022

It works quite effectively even if it spells out its various conflicts in an expositional manner.

| Sep 23, 2020

The first thing we ask ourselves is how can Alexander still believe in the Catholic Church [Full Review in Spanish]

| Sep 1, 2020

Populate these environments with a group of terrific performances, and it makes for a welcoming-yet-unforgiving look into an issue that should be understood by as many people as possible.

| Mar 17, 2020

Mutating into a documentary-style approach, Ozon has a talented cast helping him stabilize the narrative disproportion whenever the film goes up and down in tone.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 17, 2020

Ozon never plays the sentimental card and while the abuse suffered by the men is no doubt horrific, the details of their inner lives remain elusive.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 6, 2020

There's a power to By the Grace of God that could have been less overt -- I'm looking at you, Spotlight poster in the background of one scene -- but it by and large sticks the landing.

| Jan 17, 2020

It treats brittle facts with visual delicacy and suggestions that, although we do not see them, are forceful, unforgettable and graceless. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 16, 2019

The film is not a visual spectacle... but it is the message that possesses the true power and purpose that Ozon evidently wishes to transmit. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2019

The sensitive material of childhood abuse by the church, in a well-researched dramatization, is finely handled by French director-writer François Ozon.

| Original Score: B | Dec 6, 2019

Beautifully acted and deeply impressive, By the Grace of God is suffused with a simmering anger.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2019

The damage done in writer-director Francois Ozon's incriminating story is as sharply drawn as an assault.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2019

Ozon was wise to translate the story into fiction. In their rawness and their sense of intimacy, the family scenes ferret out the emotional truths behind the bald and bitter facts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 26, 2019

The film is so good that it's hard to tell whether it's a documentary or a feature film. By the Grace of God matters - no matter what.

| Nov 22, 2019

The actors Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud interpret three survivors with contrasting ethical and religious positions, but also very complementary ones. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Nov 20, 2019

One is prone to expect excess in a film by François Ozon, [but he] wisely opts to frame the fact-based events as a straightforward crime drama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2019

The film's pace is deliberate, made with a documentary style-no histrionics, just raw determination and mounting tension. An important, engrossing work-highly recommended.

| Nov 15, 2019

By the Grace of God winds up being about more than child abuse. It's also about the complex group dynamics that develop when victims seek justice and about the lasting impact of one of the most severe of all imaginable betrayals.

| Nov 14, 2019

[A] sombre and intense drama...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2019