100
The Playlist
Charming, witty, beautifully shot and inexplicably captivating.
Tabu
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Portugal,
- Germany,
- Brazil,
- France,
- Spain
- 2012
- · 110m
Director
Miguel Gomes
Cast
Teresa Madruga,
Laura Soveral,
Henrique Espírito Santo,
Carloto Cotta,
Isabel Muñoz Cardoso,
Ivo Müller
Genre
Drama,
Romance
When Pilar's befriended neighbour Aurora dies, Pilar starts to dig into Aurora's past and learns about Aurora's very tragic love story.
Stream Tabu
What are critics saying?
100
Slant Magazine
The pangs of romance, eroticism, anguish, and longing (both for the stolen moments of private passion and for the sense-making schematics of Empire) transcend any period of cinema Tabu may evoke.
100
Slant Magazine by John Semley
The pangs of romance, eroticism, anguish, and longing (both for the stolen moments of private passion and for the sense-making schematics of Empire) transcend any period of cinema Tabu may evoke.
100
The Playlist by Nikola Grozdanovic
Charming, witty, beautifully shot and inexplicably captivating.
100
Salon by Andrew O'Hehir
If you have the patience to watch this film develop and unfold, like some bizarre night-blooming orchid, what you'll see is not just the last movie released in 2012, but possibly the most original of them all.
95
NPR by Ian Buckwalter
In Tabu, Portuguese writer-director Miguel Gomes spins a two-part tale examining love, loneliness and the power of memory.
90
Variety
Even more than in "Our Beloved Month of August," Miguel Gomes begins Tabu in a seemingly ridiculous vein and unexpectedly shifts to something surprisingly enriching and poetic.
90
Variety by Jay Weissberg
Even more than in "Our Beloved Month of August," Miguel Gomes begins Tabu in a seemingly ridiculous vein and unexpectedly shifts to something surprisingly enriching and poetic.
90
Village Voice by Eric Hynes
Tabu manages to be both classical and modern, ironic and heartbreaking.
88
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
The story is ornate but easy to follow. It's the dreamy look and sound of Tabu - half old, half modern - that give the film its haunting strangeness.
83
The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias
Like other great pastiche artists, Gomes has created a time machine to a cinematic era that never quite existed, so it feels simultaneously borrowed and new.
83
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
The black-and-white cinematography and silent-film feel are haunting and nostalgic, and Aurora's story encapsulates a broader, bittersweet truth about the perils of tinted memory.
80
Total Film by Carmen Gray
This blend of tongue-in-cheek exoticism and desire so strong it makes crocodiles melancholic amply rewards your patience.
80
The Hollywood Reporter
Another charmingly eccentric exercise in meta-fiction from Portugal's offbeat new directing star Miguel Gomes, Tabu chooses to explore its characters without following narrative rules, or rather, by reshuffling hackneyed tropes from film and novels to turn them into strange, modern entertainment.
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It's a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence – and also charming and funny.
80
Empire by David Parkinson
Shot in beautiful black and white with some stunning visuals, Gomes' narrative quest is a understated gem.
60
Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf
The whole second half suggests a new way of storytelling-like one of those Wes Anderson montages done by an obsessive fan of Hatari! To judge from Tabu's first hour, pacing is not Gomes's strong suit, yet the filmmaker who emerges might win you over.
50
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
It is, of course, art rather than history - an elegant composition of dreams, memories and suggestive images - but its artfulness seems like an alibi, an excuse for keeping the ugliness of history out of the picture.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...