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The White Crow

2018

Ralph Fiennes

Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann, Adèle Exarchopoulos ...

6.0

1,385

Drama The story of Rudolf Nureyev's defection to the West. Nureyev's escape to the West stunned the world at the height of the Cold War. With his magnetic presence, Nureyev emerged as ballet's most famous star, a wild and beautiful dancer limited by the world of 1950s Leningrad. His flirtation with Western artists and ideas led him into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with the KGB. The film offers a thrilling insight into Nureyev's ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Debruge Variety	"Lovely, elegant, and curiously opaque (...) An impressive, dance-heavy biopic"
		Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"Doesn't reach its full potential (...) [It] is told in a credible but unnecessarily messy manner (...) The narrative bounces all over the place trying to cover too much ground"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Rudy’s dances are well-shot (...) but they’re pretty and bloodless instead of thrilling (...) Like most movies about great art, 'The White Crow' only points at the sublime without ever expressing it."
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Working from a potent script (...) Fiennes gives his period drama a present-tense urgency that draws us into the life of Nureyev in the fascinating act of inventing himself (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Wendy Ide Screendaily	"The defection sequence itself is terrifically tense and slickly executed (...) The cluttered structure (...) repeatedly interrupts the momentum and tension of the story"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"A watchable, serviceable movie (...) An athletic, confident, undemanding film (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Ian Freer Empire	"An interesting, challenging mess. 'The White Crow' offers lots that’s impressive (...) but can’t render it in a dramatically engaging way (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Mark Monahan Telegraph	"A serious-minded, often beautiful, utterly heartfelt character study that nevertheless lacks its astonishing protagonist’s fleet-footedness and only partly captures what made him tick (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Wenlei Ma News	"Ivenko has a raw energy in the dance sequences that makes him very watchable (...) You get the parts, but not the whole. But that doesn’t mean 'The White Crow' isn’t pleasantly satisfying (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Jake Wilson The Age	"As a filmmaker, Fiennes is enough of an artist to bring the point home without words — making it something of a letdown when he later resorts to using dialogue to spell the whole thing out (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

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