[A] stylish coming-of-age story...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 23, 2018

Despite the panache with which the dance sequences are presented, it is frustratingly inert dramatically.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 20, 2018

There is something about Polina that captures my imagination entirely, a poignantly fragile beauty to it that belies a sturdy heart and a will made out of iron.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 22, 2017

Along comes "Polina" to show how a feature film can depict a dancer's - a human's - journey toward authenticity with sophistication, artistry and love for the art form ...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 15, 2017

[Polina] is a fine example of visual storytelling.

| Sep 7, 2017

[Polina] often seems on the verge of being interesting but repeatedly retreats into a formless vapidity.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 1, 2017

Stubbornly uninvolving for long stretches, but it can also be stirringly cinematic.

| Aug 31, 2017

As Polina, Shevstova delivers a performance that feels wonderfully unforced, if that's the right word, in a role that can only be called "driven."

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2017

It's revealing, painful, hopeful and graceful all at once.

| Aug 29, 2017

In its quiet way Polina is a gender-reversed, fictional version of last year's Dancer.

| Aug 25, 2017

When Polina stays focused on dance, it soars. When it strays into the personal life of its lead, it moves almost compulsively into cliche.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2017

Polina springs to vivid life as a winsome hip-hop ballet.

| Aug 24, 2017

The creative process is always an elusive thing for filmmakers to capture, but amid all the startling visuals and the splendid acting, Polina rises, gloriously, to the challenge.

| Aug 24, 2017

Even its sensitive and gorgeous choreographies can't fully offer respite from the hollow narrative.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 24, 2017

The film is intriguing on the surface, but the scenes have no interior hum, because they haven't been conceived psychologically.

| Aug 24, 2017

If this film's directors, Valrie Mller and the French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, don't offer much overt material on Polina's inner life, it's because they don't have to: the point of Polina, and this movie, is that her dancing is her being.

| Aug 22, 2017

Polina is an adaptation of a graphic novel by Bastien Vives and it tells a reassuringly familiar story of a young girl who yearns to find success as a ballerina.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2017