German cinema has pressed upon the themes of redemption and guilt, both on a personal and collective level... [Four Minutes] is a discreet and at the same time eloquent piece of that necessary historical review. [Full review in Spanish]

| Dec 21, 2020

It's an erotically chaste but violently charged drama...

| May 21, 2020

Potent tale...one of the ten best films released in 2008

| Original Score: A- | Feb 27, 2009

Credit goes to writer-director Chris Kraus and his remarkable leads for making any such complaints about the story's familiar nature moot.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 29, 2008

Underneath the harshness and the severity there is a thick, spongey layer of pure Hollywood schmaltz, and the movie runs on predictable lines.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Bleibtreu and Herzsprung embody their characters with such vicious monstrousity that it's hard to forget that they're merely actors.

| May 2, 2008

Psychological insights and powerhouse performances combine to form a consistently engaging narrative.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 30, 2008

The acting is excellent.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 28, 2008

So relentlessly oppressive it suffocates its potentially strong themes and characterizations.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 25, 2008

... [filled] with minor mysteries and compelling characters.

Full Review | Apr 24, 2008

One of the most exciting German movies since Run, Lola, Run

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 24, 2008

There are the odd few tender moments, but they are only brief interludes between more sturm und drang.

| Apr 21, 2008

a genuine tour de force of inventive expression

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 19, 2008

A stirringly scored, refreshingly unsentimental drama.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

It's part Jerry Lee Lewis and part Glenn Gould.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

A women-behind-bars plot seething with lesbianism, incest, hanging and catfights -- on paper, at least, Four Minutes promises more fun than a Roger Corman marathon.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2008

Pitched at deafening hysteria, Chris Kraus's film might have fared better in moderato.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/6 | Apr 17, 2008

Though not to be confused with Madonna's new single, Four Minutes is similarly built from clich.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 16, 2008

Four Minutes is simply not to be missed.

Full Review | Apr 16, 2008

Although the tone of the film drifts precariously toward the self-serious, writer/director Chris Kraus redeems himself with snatches of dark jailhouse humor and a quiet attentiveness to minute gradations of human feeling.

| Apr 16, 2008