Politist, adjectiv 2010

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: You will never think about the definitions of the words "law" and "conscience" the same way after hearing Ivanov assert his authority by way of a dictionary. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: This can be called realism, but that sturdy old word is not quite sufficient to describe Police, Adjective, which is at once utterly plain, even affectless, and marvelously rich. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie comes on like a put-on -- next to nothing happens for an excruciatingly long time -- and ends as a fascinating dialectic between following one's conscience or following the law. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Much like Eliot Ness, Bucur lives at a time when the law could change tomorrow, but his conscience leads him to embrace loopholes and uncertainties wherever he can find them. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: In its own way, this is one of the most intense cop movies you'll see. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [A] low-boiling but addictive story about a young police detective who's begun to question the justice of the drug laws he's enforcing. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: I suspect that those versed in the arcana of Romanian politics will get the most out of this movie, but its moral issues, revolving as they do around matters of rightness and repression, are certainly universal. Read more

Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News: An absorbing and contemplative detective story in which the high point of the action involves reading from a dictionary. Really. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Yet another outstanding little movie in the exciting Romanian New Wave. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Simultaneously a police procedural, an analysis of language and imagery, a philosophical debate about law and justice, and a very, very dry Romanian Martini -- so dry that, at first, one doesn't quite taste much of anything. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Porumboiu's style is steady, observational, his camera tracking Cristi along the streets in much the way Cristi tracks his subject. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is ... a low-key, observant record of a universal dilemma among people in authority: How do you do your duty when your inner voice tells you it's wrong? Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Most of the story, about a police investigation of a teenage suspect, unreels at a measured pace that will drive some viewers crazy. But the ending justifies the buildup. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's unlike anything Hollywood would dare to make. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A simultaneously realistic and absurdist examination of police work. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Necessarily infuriating but finally very rewarding. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: Porumboiu is one of the few helmers working today who so completely understands both the power of language and the power of visuals. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: [A] remarkably self-effacing and highly intelligent comedy. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a surprisingly compelling way to build a sense of encroaching dread, delving into a banal, deceptively featureless world where the slightest bureaucratic blip or slip could change someone's life forever. Read more