Treeless Mountain 2009

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Is it fair for the director to strip away so much and leave us feeling so helpless? I'm still in pain; I don't know. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: So Yong Kim has a real gift for putting children at ease before the camera, and her two very young actresses (who are not sisters off-screen) reward her with performances of heartbreaking realism. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: At times, Treeless Mountain almost feels like a fairy tale -- but without the magic. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Treeless Mountain casts a sad, pellucid spell. It looks at life from three feet off the ground and meets the hardening gaze of its 6-year-old protagonist head on. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, Houston Chronicle: So Yong Kim has made another minimalist masterpiece, a quiet movie of sharply observed details and two girls who will break your heart. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: In the end, this melancholy, inspiriting movie achieves a breathtaking emotional harmoniousness. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: In modest, lovingly observed ways, the director gives her characters -- and, one hazards, herself -- the gentlest gift of sweet possibility. Read more

Ella Taylor, Los Angeles Times: Kim is deft and sensitive with her tiny co-stars, but Treeless Mountain lacks the freshness and surprise of In Between Days. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Too many filmmakers look down -- literally and figuratively -- on children. But in the carefully observed Treeless Mountain, So Young Kim gets us to immediately identify with her young heroines. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Both lovely and wrenching, So Yong Kim's intimate drama feels so honest, it's often difficult to watch. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: With Treeless Mountain, Kim establishes herself as a first-class filmmaker. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: [An] affecting, semiautobiographical story of two sisters from Seoul who are abandoned by their parents at a brutally tender age. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: [The Film] offers a stark analysis of the human potential for random cruelty that recalls nothing less than Bresson's 'Mouchette', albeit with a denouement that holds a glimmer of optimism for the future. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Drawing out beautifully natural performances from her child actors, Kim once again has a distinct way of letting her camera observe her characters with kind thoughtfulness, allowing for a quiet mood to wash over the scenes. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Skillfully unsentimental -- because of, but also despite, the presence of two irresistible, unself-conscious performers in virtually every scene. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Somewhere in between all the emptiness -- the film's laconic chapters are separated by repeated static shots of clouds and sky -- a beautiful little point is made. Read more