Closeness's reviews
Media reviews
Fotogramas
"[Balagov] with a precocious wisdom for composition and an extraordinary command of illumination and colours, it manages to turn every frame of this stunning opera prima into a really exciting experience."
Cinemanía
"The best debut of the year has a wonderful protagonist, the candour of the suburbs, an enviable visual style, dancing trances and cigarettes. We want more."
The Playlist
"Balagov relies on his own impressive directorial impulses and Zhovner?s fearless lead performance to set 'Closeness' apart from the other directorial debuts unspooling at Cannes."
Screen Daily
"An intense film influenced by the Dardenne brothers [...]. It is a grim, gruelling two hours that might benefit from some editing but Balagov is clearly a talent to watch"
Variety
"'Closeness' is a tough-minded, rigorously composed, quite brilliantly acted story [...]. The plot is perhaps overly schematic, but the filmmaking compensates [...]. In including [a] real video [...], a line is crossed"
The Hollywood Reporter
"'Closeness' [...] is dramatically erratic, with tense and compelling sequences alternating with diffuse and/or flat interludes that don't advance the narrative or pay off in other ways."
Cine Premiere
"Even if it's unsuccessful, abrupt and victim of its own disruptive impulse, it serves as an exercise of complaint and as an exploration of mindsets, like the Russian-Jewish"
Roger Ebert
"Balagov sets 'Closeness' going in many directions to the point that the thrust of the story becomes muddled [...]. The director ultimately undercuts his own work"