Village Voice by Stephanie Zacharek

The director's last film was the superb 2012 Barbara, also starring Hoss and Zehrfeld, another romance with a mystery built in; Phoenix is an even finer piece of work, so beautifully made that it comes close to perfect.

Slant Magazine by James Lattimer

Christian Petzold never luxuriates in all this film history, but rather channels the artifice and affect it embodies into new insights.

The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer

Both a powerful allegory for post-war regeneration and a rich Hitchcockian tale of mistaken identity, Phoenix once again proves that German filmmaker Christian Petzold and his favorite star, Nina Hoss, are clearly one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

There is intrigue. There is suspense. Guilt - a man's guilt, a nation's - hangs heavy in the air.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Phoenix is an intoxicating witches' brew, equal parts melodrama and moral parable, that audaciously mixes diverse elements to compelling, disturbing effect.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Petzold, directing from a screenplay he and Harun Farocki based on a novel by Hubert Monteilhet, has made a film of light and shadows that sometimes looks like a color version of “The Third Man,” and sometimes feels like a somber ode to Hitchcock. But Phoenix has no precise peers; it’s an original creation, and a haunting one.

RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico

A film this satisfying on every level — one that can be enjoyed purely for its narrative while also providing material for hours of discussion on its themes — is truly rare.

New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme

More than a thriller, Phoenix is a ghost story, made plain in an extraordinary shot of Nelly’s terror at a passing train.

The A.V. Club by A.A. Dowd

For what it sets out to accomplish, across a brisk 98 minutes, Petzold’s film feels perfectly judged. And it builds to an ending that’s just plain perfect.

The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic

Petzold distills a familiar atmosphere to create a work veiled in vibrant, cohesive, sensitively stimulating power.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Hoss' portrayal of a woman at odds with her surroundings is in a class by itself.

Variety by Scott Foundas

Because Petzold is such a gifted storyteller, with the lean, driving narrative sense of the film noir masters, he also keeps those twists and turns chugging smoothly along, building to a climax so expertly orchestrated that one imagines he started with it in mind and worked the rest of the movie backward from there.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Nathalie Atkinson

With a riveting performance-within-a-performance of subtle physicality by Nina Hoss, the charade in which a woman plays her own doppelganger certainly borrows tension, look and conventions from postwar film noir.

Time Out London by Cath Clarke

It works and then some, making for a noirish and complex emotional thriller. And Hoss is incredible, playing Nelly with the shuffling gait and haunted expression of a dead woman walking.

Empire by David Parkinson

A gripping study of treachery, identity and survival.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

Petzold's Phoenix is a high-concept premise executed as a heart-wrenching character piece.