Farah Cheded A Good Movie To Watch Nov 4, 2023

Above all [...] this is Dequenne’s film, and it’s the devastating ways she shows the life gradually being sucked out of Murielle that makes Our Children so difficult to shake off.

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Amy Taubin Film Comment Magazine Aug 27, 2019

Lafosse explores the psychological and political truth beneath the tabloid clichés in a spare but furious attack on patriarchal authority. As tragedy, Our Children is both classical and contemporary.

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Patrick Gamble CineVue Feb 25, 2019 4/5

A brilliantly crafted example of contemporary storytelling, Lafosse's Our Children provides us an unique insight into a chillingly believable tale of scandal and subterfuge without ever succumbing to cheap, manipulative techniques.

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Larushka Ivan-Zadeh metro.co.uk Sep 5, 2017 3/5

It's well performed and unflinchingly disturbing, raising bold questions about patriarchy, parenting and mental health.

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Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic Sep 19, 2013 4.5/5

It's an interesting way to tell a story and a devastating journey, particularly since it's based on a real-life incident.

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Laura Clifford Reeling Reviews Aug 19, 2013 B+

When the inevitable happens, Lafosse's restraint provokes dread - he's given us a real psychological understanding of the unthinkable.

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Nora Lee Mandel Film-Forward.com Aug 13, 2013 7/10

Challengingly takes the anti-CNN approach to a horrific crime, as upsetting . . . in trying to make the unfathomable credible. . .the film is nuanced and thoughtful.

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Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times Aug 8, 2013 4/5

This is a taut psychological study, based on a true story, of the complexities of personal power relationships that begins with the kind of shattering revelation that would be the conclusion of most films.

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Anthony Lane The New Yorker Aug 5, 2013

There is no whodunit here -- the horror is plain in the opening shots -- and the how is presented with great restraint, but the why remains veiled and mysterious long after the film has ended.

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Kate Muir The Times (UK) Aug 2, 2013

The audience is held in a vise of claustrophobia, and every room seems full of tiny, screaming children.

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Louis Proyect rec.arts.movies.reviews Aug 2, 2013

The title can refer to the children whose tragic death the film is based on but more subtly on the dependency of Mounir, a North African, on his adoptive father and that of the wife on Mounir.

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Eric Kohn IndieWire Aug 2, 2013 A-

Lafosse's of the material has the feel of a psychological crime scene investigation.

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Ella Taylor NPR Aug 2, 2013

Our Children was inspired by a real-life Belgian tragedy, but director Joachim LaFosse has built that news item into his own micro-portrait of coercion dipped in kindness.

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Drew Taylor The Playlist Aug 2, 2013 C-

The film trades in a blank grimness that isn't emotionally involving as much as it is like watching some terrible accident you're helpless to prevent.

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Manohla Dargis New York Times Aug 1, 2013 5/5

At once beautifully realized and brutally uncompromising ...

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Mike D'Angelo The Dissolve Aug 1, 2013 2.5/5

Our Children needs more heightened moments; its emphasis on quotidian frustration, while admirable (and probably accurate), just doesn't get across what ultimately made this woman snap.

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Ignatiy Vishnevetsky AV Club Aug 1, 2013 B

In terms of both plot and style (a string of one-face-then-another handheld shots), Our Children stakes everything on performance.

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Guy Lodge HitFix Jul 31, 2013 A-

Aware that a story of such grave human weight and consequence demands to be told exactingly if it is to be told at all, Lafosse's film succeeds most profoundly by refusing to phrase the inevitable question -- how could she? -- as a rhetorical one.

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Tom Dawson Total Film Jul 31, 2013 4/5

Expertly avoiding sensationalism, this potently acted drama reminds us of Jean Renoir's celebrated dictum, that everyone has their reasons.

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Anthony Quinn Independent (UK) Jul 31, 2013 4/5

This is film-making of a very high order.

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