75
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
Rainer Sarnet is as invested in telling a convoluted story that feels rooted in millennia-old folklore as he is in unabashedly experimenting with form and style for the sake of visual pleasure alone.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
The narrative never really builds a good head of steam. That could just be because as a Westerner with extremely limited knowledge of Estonian culture and mythology, the barrage of tropes from there is relatively overwhelming for me. Even so, November never stops being a visual trip. And that may well be enough.
83
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
Sarnet orchestrates authentic horror through a supernatural filter wherein beautiful black and white cinematography can immortalize abject despair.
70
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Suffused with sorcery and silvery light, November, written and directed by Rainer Sarnet, is a bizarre Estonian love story — a mishmash of folklore, farm animals and scabrous fun — in which beauty and ugliness fight to the death.
80
It’s having the ordinary in such close proximity to the outlandish that makes November so uncanny. And it’s rooting the bizarre behaviors of its characters in such understandable motivations (usually greed) that makes it so unexpectedly funny and scabrously relatable.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Though the emotional pull of this love triangle grows more compelling in the second half, for much of its running time November prefers to beguile us with the strangeness of its setting and characters.
88
Sarnet elevates his Rabelaisian folktale into a tragedy illustrated by haunting, metaphorical imagery.
88
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
It's both gravely serious and a demonically funny, a blend meant to catch audiences off balance. Mission accomplished.
80
Above all else, November, shot in gorgeous black-and-white by Mart Taniel, is a smorgasbord of deliciously grotesque imagery.
80
Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden
This folk tale braids together the primordial and the divine in endlessly surprising ways.