Partisan 2015

Ben Kenigsberg, Variety: A pint-size killer gains a conscience in Ariel Kleiman's confidently told debut feature. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Partisan is too obscure to appeal even to American arthouse crowds. It's too obscure and uneventful, ultimately, for its own good. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Maddeningly vague. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Conventional narrative detail is certainly not a requirement, and many directors can sustain a movie based on little more than suggestion and mood. But Partisan begins to feel like a short film treatment stretched beyond its limits. Read more

Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times: It's hard to tell if director and co-writer Ariel Kleiman is being serious or sarcastic with a story this preposterous. Read more

Helen T. Verongos, New York Times: Usually, partisans stand for something, but in this movie, which is stripped of a specific time frame and relevant geopolitical context, the term becomes hollow. Read more

Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader: Jeremy Chabriel is arresting as the increasingly uneasy youngster, and director and co-writer Ariel Kleiman proves adept at both world-building and attention-focusing. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Ambiguity proves the undoing of a potentially interesting story in "Partisan," the first feature by Australian filmmaker Ariel Kleiman. Read more

Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle: Perhaps it's a date movie for sadists. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Newcomer Jeremy Chabriel commands as 11-year-old Alexander, a chosen son whose dawning sense of right and wrong challenges the social order. An auspicious beginning, for him and Kleiman. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: A film trying so hard to upend expectations that it loses itself in the process. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: Partisan's lack of interest in providing necessary context - especially about the ill-defined larger society that Gregori rejects - leaves it operating on a hazy psychological level. Read more