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Tabu

2012

Miguel Gomes

Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta ...

7.1

2,537

Drama. Romance A temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes live on the same floor of a Lisbon apartment building. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight from the world of adventure films.

	Author	Review
United States	Dennis Lim The New York Times	"A living, breathing demonstration of cinephilia in action. For Mr. Gomes (...) the extinct styles and moods of classic cinema are not fodder for imitation or parody but more like communal dream material, to be mined for something new and mysterious"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"We’re lucky if a single 'Tabu' arrives each year: a film that knows cinema inside out, and uses it to work pure magic (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Cinephilia gives the film its flavour, but the simple, forthright human drama is what's important (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Jonathan Romney The Independent	"In its delicate, even rather shy way, it's the most joyously odd and surprising film of the year. It would take a truly reptilian soul not to love it."	POS
United States	Deborah Young The Hollywood Reporter	"Fun as it generally is, there is something that doesn’t quite click in 'Tabu' (...) In the end, what we really know about the characters isn’t more than a conventional movie could offer, minus the latter’s emotional pay-off."	NEU
United States	Eric Kohn IndieWire	"A brilliantly poetic look at colonialism (...) [Gomes] reaches for the dreamlike experiences of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s oeuvre with a bold structure that defies genre specifics"	POS
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"It’s an eccentric, formally challenging experiment, with two halves that try different things (...) but together form something droll, mysterious, enchanting, and altogether singular."	POS
United States	Jay Weissberg Variety	"'Tabu' is nearly uncategorizable and strictly for patient arthouse crowds, yet those who wait are likely to come away still puzzled but deeply moved."	POS

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