Love 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: The symbolism here is not subtle, extending even to the names of the characters. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Glusman's failure to rise to the occasion (except in one sense) makes "Love'' a chore to sit through. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A courageously personal account of an aspiring filmmaker torn between the mother of his child and the one that got away. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Ironic that a movie that's so explicitly about intimacy should only feel intimate when it gets its characters to leave the house. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The sex scenes are pretty hot, though their power is diminished by the characters' limited intelligence. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter: Strictly judged by the yardstick of sex films, it's actually pretty conventional in its configurations of bodies and positions, and nothing one couldn't see with a couple of clicks on the Internet. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: When "Love" works, Noe achieves a lulling, melancholic frenzy about sex and memory, but the foundation isn't strong enough to make his movie ever seem more than a stereoscopic fermata: one envelope-pushing note held way too long. Read more

Hannah K. Gold, The New Republic: Shot for shot it's a gorgeous film with a romantic naturalism that's wonderful to get swept up in. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Perhaps the lovemaking would have more juice if the characters weren't so shallow, and their dialogue so flat. Equally thin are the performances of the three leads ... Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: As if all its artistic energy had been gobbled up by the fornication, "Love" has nothing left with which to build its characters or set them in motion. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: Noe seems unwilling to accept that art requires editing - it is, by definition, artifice. It demands the artist make choices, rather than try to cram an entire catalog of experiences down the viewer's throat. Read more

David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle: Almost all of the action takes place in the bedroom. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, but a little more character dimension would have made these between-the-sheet sessions a lot more charged. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Cinematic satisfaction is denied in Love 3D, an exercise in bedroom boredom by France's Gaspar Noe. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: A sincere but repetitive drone of a picture... "Love" feels deeply, but not complexly. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: What little story there is Noe has chopped into small bits and spread out sparingly, like a chef squeezing a feast from a meager pantry. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: "Love" drags on and on, alternating between arguments and intimacy, breakups and makeups. The movie never passes the authenticity test; if this is what sex feels like, we'll all soon be extinct. Read more