The pretension rears its ugly head from the get-go, opening with a seven-minute silent sequence illustrating the break of dawn.

| Apr 22, 2023

Full of sublime moments, Silent Light confirms [Carlos] Reygadas as one of the greats.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 3, 2020

A stunning work, a transcendent, nearly spiritual experience, from the breathtaking opening shot to the haunting final frame.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 6, 2019

The sound of silence... Indulging in few words and even fewer edits, Carlos Reygadas lets his luminous images do the talking as he ponders the human condition and more. Some viewers will cry with boredom; true believers will shed tears of pain and joy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2018

The film requires an investment from audiences that it more than repays.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2018

The opening six-minute shot of dawn breaking over a rural landscape is worth the price of admission alone. Stunning.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2018

One of the finest filns of the year and absolutely worthy of many repeated viewings.

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

One sequence, soundtracked almost entirely by rainfall, is an exquisite metaphorical display of emotional tumult.

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

Reygadas communicates in a superbly controlled cinematic idiom and conjures up a hypnotic address to the viewer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2018

Hypnotic, so real-yet-otherworldly, that the filmgoer has a virtual out-of-body experience.

| Dec 3, 2018

Beautiful but boring.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 3, 2018

While there will be those who'll have issues with the film's torpid pacing, those who are willing to submit to Reygadas' astonishing vision will find themselves entranced and ultimately uplifted by the incredible transformative power of his filmmaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 3, 2018

The spectacle of watching these strange blonde-haired characters set against the lush backdrop of Mexico is both startling and engaging.

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

To mention Carlos Reygadas' winsome Silent Light in the same breath as key directors Carl Theodor Dreyer, Andrei Tarkovsky, Robert Bresson, and the more recent Bruno Dumont is not hyperbole.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 3, 2018

If Reygadas has ever subscribed to Bresson's philosophy of narrative structure, it's here in Silent Light, with its grueling emotional escalation leading up to a peak of exquisite release.

| Mar 20, 2018

He's made, unprecedentedly, a movie that's almost entirely literal even when it's being fantastical, a liberty made possible by the closed-off world Reygadas has found. And if it's a knock-out, I'm still skeptical and puzzled as to what's behind it.

| Dec 13, 2017

...traces the imperceptible reverberations of a guilty conscience.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 23, 2014

It's told with Dreyer-like conviction.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 26, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011