While its reputation has been overshadowed by later works from the filmmaker, it remains a provocative deconstruction of modern anhedonia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2020

It's a great entry point to his filmography, serving as a good example of Haneke's visual and thematic style.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 22, 2016

The violence, in short, remains unseen, but that makes it no easier to bear; what lurks and wails behind a wall is, for Haneke, the most reliable wellspring of dread.

| Aug 27, 2014

A procession of long virtuoso takes that typically begin and end in the middle of actions or sentences, constituting not only an interactive jigsaw puzzle but a thrilling narrative experiment.

| Aug 27, 2014

A searing, structurally ingenious look at racial tension on the streets of Paris.

| Aug 27, 2014

Code Unknown is an unusual example of a movie that is socially aware, but that is thankfully equally aware of how tiresome moralising and preaching can be.

| Aug 27, 2014

This film, from Austrian director Michael Haneke, is one of the most uncompromisingly difficult and challenging of the year.

| Aug 27, 2014

If some of the political theorising is somewhat naive and the direction is occasionally manipulative, the acting, particularly from Juliette Binoche, is superb.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2014

Haneke brings his usual dark sensibility to bear on the multifaceted story, expressing the fractured quality of modern city life through scenes that wander through a labyrinth of missing links and lost connections.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 27, 2014

With virtually no music and very little expository dialogue, this is one of the rare films with enough faith in moviegoers to let them figure things out for themselves.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 27, 2014

A chilling picture of urban disillusionment, Code Unknown's strength is its insistence that, to be realistic, it cannot give easy answers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2014

All this unrelenting bleakness would be fine if it went someplace interesting, but the film's themes never coalesce into anything beyond basic existential angst.

| Oct 18, 2008

The director toys with the entire idea of unlocking the code of violence, the small and individually insignificant elements that add up to tales of either joy or horror.

| Original Score: B | Jun 21, 2007

Michael Haneke's only attempt to be emotionally salient.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2006

[Haneke's] socio-political condemnations assume an aggressively hectoring tone.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 7, 2006

Despite the film's Bressonian rigours, its emotional force should finally give the lie to Haneke's reputation as a coldly academic film-maker.

| Feb 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 19, 2005

The emotional landscape is observed with detachment; you have to connect the almost hidden dots to empathise with the characters or form the message, and it's hard.

| Dec 15, 2003

Packed with provocative ideas and fragments of provocative ideas.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 14, 2003

Even if it's a bit 'foreign' and arty, it's also consistently gripping, thoughtful, powerful stuff, assembled in an unusual way that catches us off guard and never preaches.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 31, 2002