Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

With Child's Pose, the Romanian tide enters its Cassavetes phase, where the thin ice of haute bourgeoisie life cracks and opens wide.

Time Out by Keith Uhlich

A complex final scene — in which everyone finally lets the tears flow — only deepens the sense that well-meaning mother love can be as poisonous as it is nourishing.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose is a gripping new drama from Romania and another demonstration of how that country's new wave is developing a distinctive kind of real-time slice-of-life cinema with characterisation in extreme, pitiless closeup.

The Playlist by Jessica Kiang

The last quarter of Child's Pose is so remarkably strong that it makes a sometimes grim journey worth sticking with to its destination.

The Dissolve by Scott Tobias

Through it all, Gheorghiu finds the perfect pitch between a mother’s love for her child and a kind of pathology.

The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo

Sporting a blonde dye job and a haughty, impervious manner, Gheorghiu makes Cornelia a consistently compelling figure, at once monstrous and pathetic.

Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo

The film thrives on ambiguity, keeping all things blurry outside its main character's focused perspective, its myopia sustained by Lumini?a Gheorghiu's tough, quietly intense performance.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

It’s too bad that the filmmakers don’t allow an occasional breath of air into the sepulchral proceedings or ease up on the increasingly heavy-handed lessons.

Total Film by Tom Dawson

The restlessness of the camerawork may drive you to distraction, but director/co-writer Calin Peter Netzer’s film is held steady by Gheorghiu’s staunch performance.

Time Out London by Trevor Johnston

Child’s Pose plays its thematic cards far too early, but it’s sustained by Gheorghiu’s compelling central turn as the endlessly self-deluding grande dame.