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Australia · 2021
1h 52m
Director Justin Kurzel
Starring Caleb Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Sean Keenan, Essie Davis
Genre Drama, Thriller
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Nitram lives an isolated life with his parents in Tasmania and struggles with loneliness and frustration at never being able to fit in. One day, he finds a close friend in a reclusive heiress, Helen. But when their relationship meets a tragic end, Nitram begins to spiral emotionally, ultimately leading to disaster.
The implications — ethical and otherwise — that the film raises are too vast to be papered over with a closing plea for tighter gun control. The sentiment is fair and true and absolutely valid. But delivered as sober end titles at the end of “Nitram,” one can’t help but notice a certain irony in such small white letters barely hiding a much darker abyss.
There’s no doubt that Nitram is a powerful display of filmmaking. But the question remains: Whom is it for?
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Nitram is an uncommonly tough, taxing film with an aftershock that’s hard to shake.
In its quiet respect for the victims’ dignity, its uniformly outstanding performances and in apportioning responsibility only to those who shirked their responsibilities, and deploying a grief-struck compassion toward everyone else, Nitram may come to be recognized as one of the finest exemplars yet of the mass-shooting movie — inasmuch as we can stomach having an entire genre built around the phenomenon.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Nitram is a hypnotically disquieting movie.
Although Nitram is a thoughtful exploration of mental illness, highlighted by a strong cast, Kurzel can’t fully transcend what is familiar about this handwringing portrait of a ticking time bomb set to go off.
The acting quartet of Jones, LaPaglia and double Davis is just immense.