At a time where catharsis increasingly takes precedent over progress, Under the Tree has become essential.

| Mar 20, 2020

The movie's humor is cooked at low temperature, discreetly, with small explosions of cruelty.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 12, 2019

A deliciously dark satire that examines the fragile nature of civility in a suburban setting, where it can take very little to provoke savagery and the collapse of a delicate social order.

| Feb 28, 2019

Like something from Fargo, you'll laugh, feel bad for laughing, and then laugh again, with the crisp but stylish cinematography and direction also bringing to mind the same Coen classic.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 8, 2019

While some of the story seems a bit contrived, the overall plot of the film is solid and believable. The characters are well defined and the actors are all quite convincing.

| Original Score: B | Dec 3, 2018

I'll bet you think that Iceland is one of the world's happiest, most civilized places. This dramedy uses wry humor and deadly conflict to ratchet the suspense and counteract your trust.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 16, 2018

A well-made but too nasty for my taste Icelandic black comedy about a festering feud between neighbors over a tree.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 9, 2018

Under the Tree is a thrilling and devilishly sly comedy drama which takes a small disagreement and lets it spiral joyfully out of control

| Oct 30, 2018

Sex and violence in dark Icelandic dramedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 23, 2018

The director isn't really interested in forgiveness, and heads doggedly toward a deterministic ending that feels more cynical than illuminating.

| Sep 13, 2018

The film may raise a wry smile as emotions inexorably get out of proportion but the overriding feeling is of unease and despair. As the thin Icelandic veneer of politeness and rationality is riven to reveal tragedy beneath, it wipes that smile away.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2018

Under the Tree's strengths lie in the dueling performances of its ensemble, resembling a variety of contemporary Scandi social melodrama.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2018

This is a cracking film, though the good people of the Icelandic tourist board may be holding their heads in their hands.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2018

A remarkable writer-director gifted with razor-sharp wit and an uncanny grasp of human foibles, Sigurðsson is the best approximation to a 21st century Billy Wilder that contemporary cinema has to offer.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 14, 2018

The pure spectacle of beast-like characters showing their teeth and then, the inevitable and abrupt violent outburst... does not work because it has not built tension throughout the film. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 13, 2018

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson's impressive piece begins as a biting comedy before becoming progressively bleaker by the minute.

| Aug 13, 2018

Although the first section presents these conflicts with the couples and the neighbors as something insipid, little by little these conflicts grow in scale and intensity and the story becomes more interesting. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 10, 2018

It's a striking, if slightly silly, curio from the writer-director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson: 85 minutes of Bergman-lite topped off with five minutes of Tarantino.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 10, 2018

Mordant, bleeding, cruel and, above all, very true. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 10, 2018

Under The Tree is grim but Sigurðsson delivers some very memorable surprises and his uncompromising approach makes it almost impossible to look away.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 10, 2018