80
Black Coal, Thin Ice is a majestic neo-noir.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
If the plotting was only more coherent and audience-friendly and the story-telling more disciplined, the film's extraordinarily complex atmosphere would be irresistible.
67
The odd rhythm of very fast and slick followed by very slow and arty is difficult to settle into, and the film ultimately frustrates, willfully obscuring the apparatus of what appears at first to be a promising film noir framework.
80
A bleak but powerful, carefully controlled detective thriller in which — as with all the best noirs — there are no real heroes or villains, only various states of compromise.
80
If Diao’s intent on confounding us, he has the courtesy to do it with frequently astonishing style and verve.