This is easily one of the best films of the year and nails everything it was going for.

| Original Score: A+ | Aug 19, 2024

With beautiful black-and-white cinematography and two extraordinary female performances, this is a movie that captures both a particular time and place as well as a conflicting way of life in wonderful fashion.

| Jun 17, 2024

It’s a religious test, as suggested when Wanda replies to Ida’s request to seek her buried parents, “What if you find there’s no God?” Well, there is a God, and He’s lovingly observing Ida through the film’s perfectly framed static compositions[.]

| Jun 12, 2024

There is no overt outrage in the film, just an oppressive silence of grief. The stillness is occasionally interrupted by the sounds of Poland’s nascent youth culture played in lonely interiors à la Edward Hopper.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 25, 2024

If there’s one film from 2014 that I would recommend to casual moviegoers, this is it. Visually, Ida is my favorite film of the year and Agata Trzebuchowska’s screen presence will leave a mark on anyone who watches.

| Jun 23, 2023

Ida (2013) is a film about Jewish trauma featuring a nun. It’s also perhaps the Holocaust film I’ve seen that caters least to Christian perspectives and Christian narratives. There is no salvation here.

| May 22, 2023

“Ida” is a movie about self-discovery. It’s about a young girl finding her identity and dealing with the revelations of who she is and where she comes from.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 22, 2022

An impressively directed and deeply moving drama anchored by a pair of terrific performances from Trzebuchowska and Kulesza.

| Original Score: 9/9 | May 11, 2022

Ida is one of those quiet, artfully crafted little masterpieces that goes unnoticed in the dead of the spring movie season. I haven't seen anything this year that is lovelier. Don't miss seeing this film in theaters.

| Feb 21, 2021

A remarkably bold film that is taken in some courageous directions by Pawlikowski.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 11, 2020

If life is made up of small moments, Ida is a full-length mirror.

| Dec 16, 2019

Ida is permeated with such thick, dank sorrow that I began counting the number of times any character smiled. I had to open it up to "not explicitly frowning" before someone cracked the scoreboard.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 6, 2019

Even if Ida is more admirable than it's involving, there's still plenty to admire.

| Original Score: 7.2/10 | Jun 19, 2019

A film that ultimately has a lot in common with its lead character: sobriety, restraint and, most importantly, mesmerising eloquence.

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

In spite of the talent of both actresses, and the deep issues the film brings up, these two characters, in the end, inhabit unconvincing gendered stereotypes.

| Mar 11, 2019

The script is not afraid to deal primarily with character and mood, with the story, important though it may be, taking second place.

| Feb 23, 2019

Polish-born director Pawel Pawlikowski's film is a beautiful and remarkable piece of cinema which features a superb performance by newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska in the title role.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 19, 2019

Sober in tone, but not without its moments of pure joy, the haunting black-and-white art-house film is brilliantly crafted.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 31, 2018

Director Paweł Pawlikowski has a masterpiece in Ida as it defies every cinematic challenge and is truly a gift to those who watch it.

| Nov 20, 2018

Trzebuchowska and Kulesza as Anna and Wanda, respectively, also command your attention, maintaining an elusiveness that's even more compelling than the mystery at center of the story.

| Nov 20, 2018