A film that has an effective story that unravels in different formal and narrative layers. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 17, 2023

Watching "Never Look Away" is like settling in with a lengthy novel that, despite meandering now and then, turns out to be a very satisfying read. Or in this case, a very satisfying film.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 14, 2022

You feel compelled to stay with [the character] for the whole three hours.

| Oct 1, 2021

Near the end of the film Barnert says, "I don't make statements, I make pictures." With Never Look Away Donnersmarck has done both with a film that envisions a life and comments on finding meaning in a troubled past.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 31, 2021

An absolute stunner of a film.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 18, 2020

It's a portentous and absorbing exercise on reminiscences, family confidences and the reforming preponderance of art. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 7, 2020

This thinly disguised biopic of artist Gerhard Richter works directly against the complex ideas of its subject.

| Jun 26, 2020

Donnersmarck has fashioned an epic yet intimate tale about the transcendent nature of art, spanning several decades and delving into the infrequently-probed world of post-WW2 survival for Germany's ordinary citizens.

| Original Score: A | Apr 25, 2020

Never Look Away covers literal decades of narrative ground, but is such a great piece of classic melodramatic storytelling, told with such old school filmmaking verve, that it's damn near impossible to look away.

| Mar 18, 2020

Movies about famous artists have long struggled to articulate the intangible qualities that make their work renowned. Too often they settle for pat explanations. Never Look Away is no different, even as it mixes in some truly absurd, dramatic choices.

| Feb 22, 2020

His "truth" is redemptive and simple...

| Dec 30, 2019

The film makes a strong case for the idea that a society can be judged by its relationship to art - that there is a strong correlation between artistic faculty and political morality.

| Aug 5, 2019

The epic-feeling story never flags, and despite big ideas about life, sin and artistic creativity, it remains watchable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 13, 2019

Yet, despite the best intentions of... Gerhard Richter, the director's screenplay has a mini-series superficiality that's reflected in Caleb Deschanel's prettified images of life in Nazi Dresden, Communist East Germany and post-Berlin Wall Dusseldorf.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 11, 2019

"Never look away," we're told for the umpteenth time. But with von Donnersmarck serving as a dubious Virgil through the circles of 20th century history, you're better off just looking elsewhere.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 9, 2019

Watching all three hours of it is like binging a particularly compelling miniseries.

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

The plot is based on the life of Gerhard Richter, who has disavowed the movie, but you needn't be clued up on that to appreciate what's on offer: an engaging, eventful film that can't quite escape the tone of a staid miniseries.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 8, 2019

Another misstep, this time considerably less forgivable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 8, 2019

Never Look Away runs to over three hours and is a reasonably engaging human story but it is overly-long and flawed by a certain degree of cinematic indulgence that makes it syrupy and fluffy when it should not be so.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 5, 2019

Never Look Away is not without ambition and reach, and there is a real storytelling impulse. But the central performance of Schilling looks shruggingly uncertain.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 5, 2019