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Pola X
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 20
  3. Negative: 2 out of 20
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  1. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kim Morgan
    83
    A tough picture to wrap your brain around.
  2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    83
    It's compelling, poetic, rebellious, funny and one of the few movies that feels like it's been culled from another time and place yet broodingly bends modern societal taboos.
  3. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    80
    The film is at once breathtaking and ridiculous, and it's the tension between these two extremes, as well as Carax's own intoxicating style, that makes it essential viewing.
  4. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    80
    I'm not sure how elaborately I could defend Pola X, but I loved watching it.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    Plays out the notion of the forces of light being inexorably drawn to those of darkness, of the older generation betraying the younger and maybe even an indictment of European indifference to the Balkans' agony.
  6. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    Pola X has enough fireworks to keep you in your seat. When it's over, you'll know you've had an experience.
  7. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    78
    Searingly potent and suggestively supple, Carax's images are rich with emotion and ideas.
  8. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    76
    A film that's bound to be loathed for its irrationalities and narrative drunkenness, just as it will be beloved for its original risks and manic visual energy.
  9. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    I would rather see one movie like this than a thousand "Bring It Ons."
  10. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    Frantic and out of control - and great fun to watch.
  11. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    75
    There's only one Carax, uncompromisingly ambiguous.
  12. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    This moody, rapturous adaptation of Pierre, Herman Melville's gothic follow-up to "Moby Dick," is never less than seriously romantic.
  13. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    Long and lugubrious.
  14. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    A less confrontational, though positively gushing modernization of "Pierre, or the Ambiguities."
  15. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    60
    Carax has a wonderful cinematic eye and a personal feeling for editing rhythms, and his sense of overripeness and excess virtually defines him.
  16. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Carax's cinematic imagination makes it worth viewing by movie buffs with a sense of adventure and a tolerance for explicit sex.
  17. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    50
    Through Carax's eyes, even squalor looks fabulous.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    50
    An often intriguing, sometimes hypnotic work, but one that quickly starts to unravel in the final hour as it becomes clear there’s not much beneath the emperor’s clothes.
  19. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    Frenzied, gothic nonsense.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    25
    Carax, with Pola X, has become a parody of himself with a self-indulgent, overreaching style that many viewers will find a struggle to watch -- provided they can contain their contempt for pretentiousness.
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