The Playlist

Sister is as bleak and as beautiful as its snowy, mountainous setting.

The Playlist by Emma Bernstein

Sister is as bleak and as beautiful as its snowy, mountainous setting.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Sister may not arrive at a happy ending, but the lack of resolution -- capped off by the powerful last image --completes its journey to a place of rousing emotional clarity.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

Her film is closer to Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" in the way it gets inside the gumption and desperation of childhood lived on the edge. It's a terrific, bracingly sad movie.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

The high-low setting effectively reinforces the emotional geography of both lost souls. Gillian Anderson makes a brief, well-placed appearance as one of the rich.

Time by Mary Pols

Director Ursula Meier's Sister is a penetrating study of familial bonds, quietly devastating in parts, beautiful on whole and destined to make you fall in love with a practiced and entirely amoral preteen thief.

Boston Globe by Wesley Morris

It's delicately made, yet forceful in its delicacy.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

Haunting and sad. And absolutely worth seeing.

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

In an unusually subtle performance by a child actor, Kacey Mottet Klein stars as a crafty ragamuffin.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Trading the cooler, more emotionally detached style and vibe that characterized "Home," her debut feature, about a family falling apart, Ms. Meier quietly goes for the emotional jugular in Sister.

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

Meier is clearly carving out a path all her own; the next one should be a gem.

New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme

Meier's tight focus on her primary characters pays off: Seydoux brings a strong array of emotions to a highly unsympathetic part. And Klein, whether plugging his ears with cigarette filters or suddenly embracing a woman he barely knows, is heartbreaking.

Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo

Ursula Meier's film is sustained by a sturdy emotional engine and some intrepidly thoughtful characterization.

NPR by Mark Jenkins

Sister offers several reasons why the boy can't or won't return to ski-resort robbery next winter. But the movie also quietly suggests that, whatever he does, Simon will always be the boy from down below, boldly impersonating someone born to the heights.

Wall Street Journal by John Anderson

Likely to create considerable nervous tension among viewers who think they've seen this all before. They haven't.

Village Voice by Nick Schager

Writer/director Ursula Meier uses a stripped-down, naturalistic aesthetic full of well-organized compositions that pay close attention to shifts in character mood, comportment, and behavior.