It takes a while to get to the meat of the movie, but it's well worth the wait.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 5, 2013

It almost seems a parody of willfully obscure art-house fare. Yet it has an undertow that sucks you in as often as it strands you back on shore.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 14, 2013

A kind of jigsaw puzzle, spiced up with references to "White Mischief," "Out of Africa" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," that will frustrate some audiences and fascinate others.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 7, 2013

The audience is left to imagine much of the story, though it is clear it involves love, betrayal, guilt, regret and a recurring crocodile.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 24, 2013

Portuguese director Miguel Gomes' latest film moves through different styles and eras, and proves that shooting in black and white is as versatile as it ever was.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 28, 2012

Few films are this smart about subtly couching their allegorical aspirations within more straightforward narratives; fewer still are able to do so with such energetically inventive virtuoso style.

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Dec 27, 2012

If you have the patience to watch this film develop and unfold, like some bizarre night-blooming orchid, what you'll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all.

| Dec 27, 2012

A lyrical Old Hollywood melodrama projected on a bedsheet? A celluloid curio la Barnum's Fiji mermaid? At such times, it's better to stick with a simple "wonderful."

| Dec 27, 2012

Churlish though it sounds, you'll want to arrive for this b&w Portuguese drama about 45 minutes late.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 27, 2012

Droll, mysterious, enchanting, and altogether singular.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 27, 2012

Its artfulness seems like an alibi, an excuse for keeping the ugliness of history out of the picture.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 26, 2012

Miguel Gomes begins Tabu in a seemingly ridiculous vein and unexpectedly shifts to something surprisingly enriching and poetic.

| Nov 30, 2012

A brilliantly nuanced, deeply imagined psycho- excavation of modern Europe by the Portuguese director Miguel Gomes.

| Oct 8, 2012

The reward is a stunning photographic narrative - a love story told as sweeping parable. But to get there takes an investment by the viewer.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 20, 2012

The pangs of romance, eroticism, anguish, and longing (both for the stolen moments of private passion and for the sense-making schematics of Empire) transcend any period of cinema Tabu may evoke.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 17, 2012

One of those films you need to see twice, Miguel Gomes's subtle and bizarre little masterpiece unfolds slowly. Very slowly.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2012

For all its cleverly shot post- modernity, Tabu inadvertently argues for the power of old-school storytelling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2012

It's a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence - and also charming and funny.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 6, 2012

There are times when you feel the whole thing is better listened to than watched.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 6, 2012

When it ends, the movie leaves you with a perfect ache.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 6, 2012