Loveless is a movie that will leave you devastated. There are few movies with such power. Acting, direction, musical score are so impeccable, you can´t help but getting sucked into the story. It is a closer look on how emotional violence is passed on by generations, everyone stands as offender and victim, unintended. This message was so strong, you don´t see it, you directly feel it. It is a masterpiece of cinema. I am pretty sure you will leave the theatre changed.

Christ, the heart goes out for the Russian nation after this one, the same way it did after Leviathan.This film felt like a lamentation for the current state of the Russian people brought forth with the intimate tale of a disastrous marriage and divorce.Being Russian myself, and coming from a less than perfect family, this movie hit home too many times. For me it was a very personal exploration of the deepest recesses of the Russian family. It was done masterfully through disturbingly accurate acting, starkly oppressive cinematography, and an ominously brilliant soundtrack. The way this film managed to interweave grand themes of the degradation of an entire nation and culture, and the more intimate themes of love and abandonment, was deeply impressive. It left a strong lasting impression.The movie had a very distinct and strong sense of identity and atmosphere. All the cold and impersonal visuals did a great job as the background for our despondent failed couple.The emotional weight this film carries with it ends up slicing deep, bringing out grief for the current state of affairs, the lovelessness the nation is mired in. This was possible thanks to the amazing job everybody on the technical side of things did; giving this painful tale a beautiful cinematic body.It feels like a very important and honest introspective film. It tapped into some painful points and I appreciate it for doing so. Another great film by Zvyagintsev.

Dysfunctional Russian family on display. These people screwed it up every way possible, and it got costly. First hour and a half is very well done. Excellent on many levels. The last half hour not so much. But it was still interesting. Just remember lunch cost $3.70.For your $8 you get $8.67 of entertainment. About 20 minutes more than you'll want or need.

***BEGUILING, UNPREDICTABLE MYSTERY MADE ME FORGET I WAS IN A MOVIE THEATER***

Bleak as fuck, it's a little hard to respond to it emotionally, but maybe that's why it's also an interesting examination on parenting issues and on an even larger scale, the world's desensitization to catastrophic events and war, given its political subtext and backdrop. The performances are very nuanced and whether or not it does its job from an emotional standpoint, there's something here that's depressingly fascinating.

Very intense, but incredibly acted and directed.

A hard-hitting story about a family out of love that is more real than most movies would even go. In a world where we fall away from the conventions of love and marriage, the film warns that maintaining any of those ties to family takes commitment. Those that don't honor that, even apart, pay the price for it. From beginning to end, we see a natural cause and effect as well as why it's difficult to put them back to together once it's broken. From the still camera work to the bits of dialogue, we don't see people talking. We see dogs barking. And what happens when you set these dogs apart, they instantly forget and eat from their own bowls and their own houses. Sad, but true.

This drama is so hard and rough that it balances on the point of unwatchability, in the good sense. In the sense that it is ultra-realistic and to the point. It makes you feel benumb at the end, the nihilism of the movie is boiling, or rather the sick society it depicts.

"Loveless", a 2018 Oscar nominee for best foreign language film, from Russia, could have, should have, would have been a powerful picture if the director, Andrey Zvyagintsev, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Oleg Negin, had an editor, Anna Mass, who could have reigned him and the cinematographer, Mikhail Krichman, with less is more. One too many scenes with a cell phone, have one scene with seeing snow through a window, have 3 more, be sure many scenes run 30 seconds to 2 minutes too long and throw in a few that do nothing but extend the movie's running time and take away from the drama unfolding on the screen.Necessary scenes at the beginning set up what takes place later. We meet 12-year-old Alexey (Matvey Novikov) as he overhears his soon to be divorced parents arguing and neither wanting custody of him. They are trying to sell their apartment. His father, Boris, (Aleksey Rozin) is a middle management desk salesman who works where divorce is a sin and could cost him his job. Meanwhile, he is living with his new, now pregnant, girlfriend, Marsha (Marina Vasilyeva) in her mother's home. Alexey's mother, Zhenya, (Maryana Spivak) owns a beauty salon and spends many hours with her new lover, Anton, (Andris Keishs), who, by the way, has a home I would love to live in! She is also strongly attached to her cell phone as both the director and cinematographer constantly, needlessly, show us her using it.After all this is established we understand Alexey disappearing and his parents not even knowing it until his teacher calls to ask why he hasn't been in school for 2 days. The film then turns into the search for the boy, mainly by civilian volunteers as it seems the police have neither the men, the money or the time to search for all the kids missing.The search, led by Ivan (Alesky Fateev), takes up the major part of the film with, once again, too many long and repetitive scenes that undermines the suspense. There are many detours from the main story such as meeting Zhenya's mother (Nataliya Potapova) Marsha's mother (Anna Gulyarenko) plus a co-worker (Roman Madyanov) but we are always taken back to the search of the forests, buildings, rivers and surroundings. We are given a thorough lesson in what is involved in a search for a kid who may have run away or been kidnapped or met some disaster that no parent wants to face.The basic premises of the marriage and the search for the disappearing boy are what makes the movie so interesting but there are one too many cell phone scenes--yes we get it that Russians are as tied to them as Americans and other countries are--snow scenes and, yes, too many sex scenes!There is a lot of politics in the movie including the USA election in 2012 but the last shot of Zhenya jogging on a treadmill wearing a red sweatsuit emblazed with RUSSIA across the front went right over my head if it means anything."Loveless" will be an excellent movie when you can fast-forward the repetitive scenes and photography and slow it down each time--and there are many, yes, even too many---Anton's house is shown.

more depressing than compelling. the Parents are too narcissistic to care for or empathize with. in the end, they remain narcissistic, even with new mates. Why should i care?

Boris and Zhenya are an extremely unhappy married couple in the process of getting a divorce. Though they both have new romantic partners (Boris' girlfriend is very pregnant), they still share the same Moscow apartment which they're trying to sell. It would be bad enough if they just hated each other's guts, but neither of them wants custody of their shy 12-year-old son, Alyosha, and they loudly argue about whether to send him to boarding school or to live with Zhenya's wretched mother (who doesn't want him either). Unbeknownst to them, Alyosha hears the whole thing. (The whole building probably hears the whole thing). When he leaves for school the next morning, he never comes home. But neither do either of his parents (they both have sleepovers), so he's been missing for over a day before anyone even notices. There have been few movie characters who I've found as unlikable as Zhenya. In the course of a two-hour movie, she tells three different people that she only married Boris because she was pregnant and that she should have aborted Alyosha, who she openly mocks in front of strangers. Her new boyfriend, who has a grown daughter who he actually loves, responds with the Russian equivalent of "that's cool" when she tells him this. What?? No, dude. I don't care how good the sex is...when your girlfriend tells you she wishes she had aborted her son and was too repulsed to even look at him when he was born, that right there should be a deal-breaker. Boris is no great shakes as a parent either. He seems to care about Alyosha at least a little bit, but not enough to want him encumbering his new life. He apparently never loved Zhenya either, and as ridiculous as this sounds, only married her because his very religious boss requires all of his employees to be married. Meanwhile Alyosha is missing. Searches are conducted and fliers are posted and hospitals are checked and people are interviewed and Zhenya remains a self-absorbed, bitter, Facebook-addicted shrew and Boris remains emotionally-stunted but at least he participates in the search effort. Though this movie is purportedly about Alyosha's mysterious disappearance and tons of screen time is dedicated to showing the search efforts, finding him is almost beside the point. Not for me - I was all in on trying to solve the mystery - but apparently for whoever wrote the screenplay, who basically uses Alyosha as a prop to highlight his parent's unhappy lives. I've skimmed a few reviews that all seem to think that the movie is filled with symbolism about modern-day Russia and blah blah blah, but I got a C-minus in freshman English for my refusal to believe that there's more to every story than the literal interpretation, so how the hell do I know. No matter how you slice it, this is one majorly depressing movie. You know how some movies start out kind of happy and then at some point take a downward turn? Well that's not this one. Starts depressing, stays depressing throughout. No happy people, no happy scenes. Not a single moment of levity. Enjoy.

Grim and engaging...

A raw, cold treatise on the perils of self-absorption, sometimes difficult to watch and sometimes difficult to believe but all too often right on the mark when it comes to the slow but relentless erosion of qualities like courtesy, consideration and compassion. The pacing is a bit slow at times, and some of the cultural references are likely lost on non-Russian audiences. But the overall message is clear and undeniable -- and not limited to the film's country of origin.

Preoccupied by their respective new partners and the mundanity of modern life, a divorcing couple's neglect for their 12-year-old son takes a dark turn in Andrey Zvyagintsev's film, Russia's nominee for Best Foreign Film in this year's Oscars. Beginning promisingly with succinct introductions of the characters and their relationships, the film peaks, a tad too early, with a heartbreaking moment of cinematic genius that, for me, captures everything it needs to say, as the arguing couple fails to notice their son's soundless sobbing in the bathroom corner. But it's downhill from there as the rest of the film flatlines by turning into a procedural drama, with the emphasis on the procedure. Meticulously researched and realistically presented though it may be, it goes on and on with no real pay-off in the end. The hopelessly cyclical, and perhaps also cynical, ending might appeal to some but I find it hollow and unsatisfying. Chock full of symbolic imageries that create a grey and chilling monotone, and at just over 2 hours long, its European arthouse pacing falls foul of my golden rule that if you cross that 120 mark, you better have a real good reason to do so. Loveless has a pertinent and intriguing point to make, about the loveless state of not only children of divorcing couples, but also the adults, the abandoned buildings and even society as a whole - but I think it can be achieved in less time with the same finesse and impact. There is no doubt something poetic about the film, which I liked, but it just takes too long to get there.

Frankly, Loveless(Nelyubov) is filmmaking at its best, its sense of placement paints a somber portrait of emotions that will take your heart for a joy ride, it does that through its expressive cinematography that draws from the harsh nature of Russia, the visuals tell a heart-wrenching story about life, the film doesn't implement any gimmick or bait for empathy, it just tells the story realistically and for that the film functions on a different level.Andrey Zvyagintsev, The director carefully frames its characters and highlights their behavior and ultimately his shots are more articulate than his dialogues due to their relentlessness, the acting here was minimalistic and does the job perfectly.The music was a very important factor as well because in a way it helped shape the gritty and crude nature of the cinematography.Once in a while a film comes and reminds me exactly why I love film, Today Loveless did that for me, I guess the best way to describe it is a forceful attack on the senses that will linger in the back of mind for a long time, therefore, I think me calling it excellent doesn't quite do it justice.