100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by
Spare, steely, sexually explicit in a way that transcends mere provocation, Stranger by the Lake is vital cinema.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
This is essentially an absorbing and intelligent exploration of queer desire spiced up with thriller elements.
100
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
Alain Guiraudie's film portrays cruising as a danger-seeking and astoundingly repetitive affair, intimately linked to death itself.
83
Guiraudie creates an ambiance of eerie atmospherics that is at once crisp and observant, and oddly dreamlike, or nightmarish.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
Stranger by the Lake invites you into its alluring and peaceful world, only to gradually uncover the darkness beneath it.
80
Though Stranger by the Lake leans a bit too heavily on its long-take, slow-cinema bona fides, there’s a clear purpose to Guiraudie’s rigorous perspective. He’s out to unearth the very potent (and often terrifying) emotions underlying every explicit act, sexual or otherwise.
100
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
Stranger abounds with precision and detail, evinced not just in the spectacular visual composition but also in the observation of behavioral codes in carnally charged spaces.
83
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The movie is voyeuristic, sure, but in a way that evokes Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" more than William Friedkin's "Cruising."
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The tired old trope "erotic thriller" does no justice to how confrontationally and explicitly sexual this movie is — nor how thrilling, nor how menacing and complex.
90
Even when the plot kicks in and the stakes get raised, there’s a casualness to Guiraudie’s approach that’s singular and admirably defiant of genre expectations. He’s setting a scene. Tension insinuates itself later.