Ida

"In this era of filmmaking where narrative bloat seems to be the norm, it’s always heartening to see a filmmaker who understands, and continues to practice, the virtue of paring down to essentials and cutting through the bullshit. One such filmmaker is Pawel Pawlikowski, who’s already demonstrated his predilection for wrapping stories up in under 90 minutes with economical gems like Last Resort and My Summer of Love."

"Devoid of color and mirth... just the sort of joyless art film one might expect Polish nuns living under the clutches of 1960s communism to appreciate."

"Within its relatively brief duration and its narrow black-and-white frames, the movie somehow contains a cosmos of guilt, violence and pain."

"Every moment of Ida feels intensely personal. It is a small gem, tender and bleak, funny and sad, superbly photographed in luminous monochrome."

"Ida’s piercing intimacy makes the deepest impression, but its vision is deceptively wide-reaching despite a scale that’s deliberately pared-down and small."

"Frame by frame, Ida looks resplendently bleak, its stunning monochromes combining with the inevitable gloomy Polish weather and communist-era deprivations to create a harsh, unforgiving environment."