79
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The Film StageRory O'ConnorThe Film StageRory O'ConnorA blistering work of meta filmmaking.
- 83IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIf “Synonyms” was a howl, Ahed’s Knee is the spittle that was still left in Lapid’s mouth when it was over. It’s a smaller and less electrifying film — as contained and implosive as its title’s reference to Éric Rohmer would suggest — but also one that cuts to the heart of Lapid’s visceral genius and cauterizes the open wound at the center of his body of work.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerThe Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerDespite all the swagger, this is not style for style’s sake. It’s more about Lapid inventing his own language: one that’s highly personal, but also tries to expand horizons at a time when films tend to resemble TV shows more and more, especially in how they’re directed.
- 80Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallThe writer-director’s evident anger is tempered and fragmented by both fatalism, games of truth and lies, self-doubt and frequent reminders, in this Biblical landscape, of the historical and geological long view. Ahed’s Knee also works, perhaps surprisingly, as a drama that crackles with a never-consumed sexual energy.
- 80VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangQuite possibly brilliant, and very definitely all but unbearable, Ahed’s Knee is filmmaking as hostage-taking. If such language seems charged, this is Nadav Lapid: All language is charged.
- 75The PlaylistCaroline TsaiThe PlaylistCaroline TsaiThere is a kind of violence in resistance and a kind of violence in complicity, too, and to that end, the characters in Ahed’s Knee are trapped in a perpetual dance with their own identity and nationality, a never-ending negotiation of morality and belonging.
- 75TheWrapJason SolomonsTheWrapJason SolomonsThe performances are striking and do much to keep the film on a tightrope. Overall, though, it’s a work of robust intellectual energy and raging conflict that could come across as hectoring and even bullying. While fizzing with ideas and ideologies about cultural freedom, it’s also a very physical film, with close ups of skin — knees, toes, torsos — and the dry crunch of the stony desert.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreAhed’s Knee isn’t as sexy, satiric and light as its Felliniesque opening promises. But Lapid manages to make a lot of points about the creative person’s life in modern Israel, the sensitivities triggered and the moral quandary a thinking Israeli finds her or himself in.
- 63Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownWith Ahed’s Knee, Nadav Lapid plays a game with alter egos that’s at once canny and frustrating.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawAs it begins to explain more and more about what drives its leading character, the film becomes less and less interesting and the stridently melodramatic finale, as well as being highly unlikely in ordinary plot terms, feels a little bit self-exculpatory.