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Elles

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France, Poland, Germany · 2011
Rated NC-17 · 1h 36m
Director Małgorzata Szumowska
Starring Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, Joanna Kulig, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Genre Drama

A journalist tries to balance the duties of marriage and motherhood while researching a piece on college women who work as prostitutes to pay their tuition. Her meetings with two fiercely independent young women, Alicja and Charlotte, are profound and unsettling, moving her to question her most intimate convictions about money, family, and sex.

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What are critics saying?

40

Village Voice by

It's entirely too much for co-writer/director Malgoska Szumowska to coherently flesh out in an hour and a half, especially with so much time dedicated just to the state of arousal.

40

The Guardian by Andrew Pulver

Binoche rises above the lubricious material by giving a thoroughly detailed and committed performance as the journalist.

60

Time Out by David Fear

Titillation and tentative stabs at gender studies do not a cogent cri de coeur make. It's simply a provocation that's all hopped up with nowhere to go.

60

Empire by David Hughes

Another bravura performance from Juliette Binoche glosses over the flaws in a soft-focused glimpse at the seamier side of student life.

50

Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo

The film is ultimately draining because of the way it handles Anne, stranding a potentially dynamic character in two dueling scenarios, both of which are drab and unsurprising.

40

Variety by Rob Nelson

A typically smart performance by Juliette Binoche isn't enough to keep Elles from drowning in pseudo-intellectual pretension and general banality.

50

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Szumowska provides lurid scenes of perverted sex, but she offers no new insight into the sordid world of prostitution and the dangers sex workers face. Nor does she flesh out Charlotte and Alicja. The result is a superficial and voyeuristic film.

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