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Russia, France, Germany · 2017
Rated R · 2h 7m
Director Andrey Zvyagintsev
Starring Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin, Matvey Novikov, Marina Vasilyeva
Genre Drama
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Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce defined by resentment, frustration, and recriminations. Already, each has a new partner, impatient to start again, eager turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. One day, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears...
Screen International by Dan Fainaru
Faithful to his title, Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) deivers a cruel, desolate, unforgiving image of Russia’s new middle class, ruled by selfishness, greed, frustration, envy, anger and anxiety in Loveless.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Emily Yoshida
Loveless gives us a multicourse meal of social ills, too dispersed to feel like a thesis, yet too chilly to feel like a raw, unbridled tantrum.
While not the same league as “Leviathan,” Zyvagintsev’s latest slow-burn look at anguished people tortured by problems beyond their control displays his mastery of the form.
The Film Stage by Giovanni Marchini Camia
Although Leviathan, Zvyagintsev’s previous and far-superior effort, was hardly a masterclass in nuance, a palpable sense of empathy and flashes of humor largely compensated for its lack of subtlety. These are sorely lacking in Loveless.
This is the downer as an art form, a feelbad film of gargantuan reach and effect, and a brave, horrified commentary on a whole nation.
Zvyagintsev is masterfully compiling a cinematic record of suffering, and the indifference surrounding and facilitating it, which will live on.
The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin
With his devastating, finely layered new drama Loveless (Nelyubov), Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev once again demonstrates his remarkable gift for creating perfectly formed dramatic microcosms that illustrate the bred-in-the-bone pathologies of Russian society.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Loveless is a stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe: a drama with the ostensible form of a procedural crime thriller. It has a hypnotic intensity and unbearable ambiguity which is maintained until the very end.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
The script, co-written by Zvyagintsev and his regular collaborator Oleg Negin, scrupulously extends to each of its characters the dignity of complexity, and both excellent leads repay the favour tenfold, investing what could have easily been petit-bourgeois caricatures – the preening shrew, the oafish office drone – with riveting sincerity and nuance.
Paste Magazine by Tim Grierson
When the film concludes, you may find yourself wanting to watch it again to fully absorb the journey Zvyagintsev took you on. And because Loveless is so accomplished, the repeat viewing promises to be deeply rewarding.
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