The Lost Weekend

"Painfully sincere and uncompromising look at alcoholism for a film released in 1945, with a superb central performance (…) Rating: ★ (out of 5)" 

"A shatteringly realistic and morbidly fascinating film (...) An illustration of a drunkard's misery that ranks with the best and most disturbing character studies ever put on the screen" 

"The film is uncompromising in its depiction of the lies, self-deception and degradation that alcoholism leads to, and its confrontation of the fact that the only solution is abstinence." 

"What makes the film so gripping is the brilliance with which Wilder uses John F Seitz's camerawork to range from an unvarnished portrait of New York brutally stripped of all glamour (...) to an almost Wellesian evocation of the alcoholic's inner world" 

"Today it's less impressive but not without its virtues, including the location photography of lower Manhattan, the performances..." 

"The psychiatric study of an alcoholic, it is an unusual picture. It is intense, morbid — and thrilling. Here is an intelligent dissection of one of society’s most rampant evils" 

"[Milland's] playing of the role of Don Birnam is a terrific piece of artistic acting (...) Wilder has created a tense and suspenseful atmosphere (...) It is a horrible but fascinating spectacle."