This is a sliver of a story, told quickly, but it lingers like sunspots on the backs of your eyelids as your eyes close, tired by looking out to sea.

| Sep 16, 2023

Franco’s cinematic character study explores the reasons for the self-imposed exile with a show-don’t-tell style that should have cineastes celebrating the lack of prose dumpers disguised as characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2023

In Sundown, Michel Franco presents an irresistibly visible film, in which every step plants the seeds of intrigue and mystery. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 15, 2023

Michel Franco delivers a harsh and disturbing film, with a nihilistic drift... [Full review in Spanish]

| May 8, 2023

Slowburn, then bonkers

| Dec 30, 2022

Franco has never had any fondness for privilege, or much for human nature; with his latest penetrating film, he's as unforgiving as always, but also as committed to unpacking what it means to define your own path.

| Jul 17, 2022

There’s a sense of dread running through this deeply discomfiting – but gripping – character study.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2022

It may actually be too grim, as I was left feeling disturbed and depressed, and not necessarily in a way that highlighted anything unexpected about the story...Whether audiences find "Sundown" enlightening or enraging, it's sure to leave an impression.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 11, 2022

The admirable thing about Roth’s deceptively downbeat performance and Michel Franco’s unobtrusive direction is that you’re always with Neil, even though you’re never quite sure where he is.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2022

It eats away at you, with Roth leaving just enough space and ambiguity in his character for the viewer to fill in the blanks with their own perspective and experience (at their own peril).

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 1, 2022

The chronicle of a trip to nowhere and, also, of an abandonment, of a renunciation, of an unexpected and inevitable flight in the face of emotional and existential boredom. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2022

Neil is a simple man in a complex moment, a millionaire who doesn't want money, a brother who wants to emancipate himself, a lover who embraces sex to feel something. Anything. Because if you feel something, you're still alive. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5 | May 26, 2022

A film so alive, everything changes contently, life in life, keeping us prisoner in its enigmatic mastery. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 26, 2022

The drama simmers, releasing bursts of tension. A sudden explosion may ensue... or maybe not. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 20, 2022

Sundown is both as mean as Franco’s reputation suggests and as compelling.

| Apr 13, 2022

Sundown is a movie that will have you talking long into the evening.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 8, 2022

Multiple twists raise Sundown’s shock value in what is essentially a character study of a man at the end of his tether; it’s heady and unsettling, and challenging.

| Apr 8, 2022

Director Francos quietly thrilling follow-up to the controversial New Order is an about-face but a riveting one, exploring its protagonists slide into another kind of life for reasons that must be teased out by the viewer.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 7, 2022

Like the recurring image of an empty chair, the film acquires more power once it's gone and you're left to grapple with a dawning awareness of what just happened.

| Mar 21, 2022

I can't say I'd describe it as a hopeful film, then, although it is a curiously palliative one.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 3, 2022