Keep the Lights On stands as a heart-wrenching arch, oozing with amiable authenticity in slices of life too often shied away from on screen.

| Nov 16, 2020

Writer/director Ira Sachs has wisely chosen to tell the nine-year affair from the point of view of the filmmaker...

| Jun 9, 2020

This gay domestic drama is a fascinating turn for Sachs.

| Feb 28, 2020

Multifaceted director Ira Sachs returns with Keep the Lights On, his first feature since 2007, and is arguably his most poignant and strongest work yet.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2019

Keep The Lights On is still well-made with a terrific cast supporting one of the year's best performances.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 29, 2019

The movie's elaborately failed closure only makes sense once you understand that the filmmaker's all-too-human desire for self-justification apparently trumped the ruthless self-control required to make a work of art.

| Feb 25, 2019

A mournful examination of the extremes of life condensed from a ten-year period into a hauntingly swift 101 minutes of heartbreak.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2019

Keep the Lights On acknowledges (without belaboring) the performative nature of identity; how each of our claims to selfhood, be it sexual, romantic, or professional, are staged on a shifting terrain of habit, fantasy, and desire.

| Aug 22, 2013

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 16, 2013

The best film of 2012...Perfect.

| Original Score: A | Jan 27, 2013

Small in frame but large in heart.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jan 9, 2013

Sachs captures Erik's yearning for Paul and Paul's addiction-induced indifference with equal force.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 15, 2012

An intimate, honest and uncompromising study of the need for love and the addictions to drugs, sex and intense emotion that may accompany -- and sabotage -- love's pursuit.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 12, 2012

A brutally honest, at times embarrassingly raw, attempt to capture a modern day, urban relationship...bittersweet and filled with memorable details, a huge leap forward for [director] Sachs.

| Nov 11, 2012

It feels as if we're being given glimpses into real lives unfolding.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2012

There's a lot to like here, and if you're a traditionalist who hungers for a happy ending, you'll find it embedded in the opening credits.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 2, 2012

Director-cowriter Sachs takes an unusually intimate look at a 10-year relationship in this beautifully shot and performed New York drama.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2012

A tenderly observed portrait of a man aching for romance even as he resists the idea of full commitment.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 1, 2012

Every frame pulses with hard-gained experience: it may be the most lived-in film of 2012, and certainly counts among the most moving.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 1, 2012

Monitoring the peaks and troughs of this fractious relationship is more fascinating than enjoyable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 1, 2012