Martha Marcy May Marlene 2011

Tom Long, Detroit News: A purposely disturbing portrait of a damaged psyche. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: Martha Marcy May Marlene stands among the best films of 2011. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A bit too coy, too clever and too diffident to believe in. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: A lesser movie might hammer home the idea that the cult squashes Martha's sense of self. This distinctive and haunting effort implies something much scarier: that there is no self to start with. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The non-ending turns the whole movie into an elaborate tease, too creepy to dismiss, too shallow to justify its "ambiguities." Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The story hinges on a believable lead performance, and Olsen is mesmerizing in her first film role. She starts out wide-eyed and vulnerable and eventually assumes the look of a captive, communicating raw paranoia with subtle gestures. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Sean Durkin's debut feature gets under your skin and burrows there; you can't quite shake it off. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Olsen gives a magnificently ambiguous performance that will instantly eclipse any snarky comments about her famous siblings, and Durkin knows precisely how much information to reveal and how much to leave frighteningly implicit. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: The confusion of Martha Marcy May Marlene proves effective, not sloppy. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Hawkes is, as ever, outstanding. But Olsen is a wonder. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The film has its gimmicky aspects but Olsen is haunting: She grounds the slim premise and makes it worthwhile. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The horror aesthetic of B-movie producer Val Lewton -- that the unseen is more frightening than the seen -- is carried to a merciless extreme in this unnerving debut feature by writer-director Sean Durkin. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Durkin immerses the viewer in a fluid state of psychological dissolution, keeping us very close to one woman's experience in a cult by any other name. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Durkin intersperses the present-day scenes with increasingly revelatory flashbacks from Martha's two years in the cult. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Masterful. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Durkin depicts a horror that some among us actually live, where the search for family leads to something familiar and dangerous. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: MMMM emphasizes the social and economic discrepancies between Martha's then and now, and alludes to Lucy's guilt about not being there for her younger sister in the past. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Olsen nails her perpetual state of worry so keenly that it elevates her struggle to the scale of existential tragedy. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A star-making turn from the Olsen twins' baby sis will put this disturbing drama on the map. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: In quiet, intimate ways, it is one of the most startling, haunting films you'll see all year. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: What writer-director Sean Durkin has given us is an existential thriller about identity and just how tenuous a grasp we have on who we really are. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: One of the ingenious things about Martha Marcy May Marlene is how precisely the film is constructed, constantly drawing you in closer while making you dread what's coming. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Like [Michael] Haneke, Durkin -- remarkably, making his first feature -- specializes not in apocalyptic grandeur but in the creak and the tinkle of the uncanny. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "Martha Marcy May Marlene" isn't much of a movie, but it's a great introduction. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: A confidently spooky indie debut. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: First-time filmmaker Sean Durkin, who also wrote the screenplay, has a confident voice and a clear vision. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Two enthralling new talents announce themselves in "Martha Marcy May Marlene." Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Ms. Olsen, a revelation throughout, feeds every scene with poignancy. It's an alarming but gratifying achievement. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Olsen inhabits Martha's broken world completely. And at the movie's end - a jarring, boldly ambiguous end - we're in her head, too, not sure what is real, and what is not. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: First-time feature director Sean Durkin combines an understated style with an unaffected performance from Elizabeth Olsen with superlative results. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A good film, ambitious and effective, introducing a gifted young actress and a director whose work I'll anticipate. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Elizabeth Olsen gives a sensational performance in a gripping psychological thriller, from gifted first-time writer-director Sean Durkin. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Martha Marcy May Marlene" is an utterly gripping ride that will keep you guessing until the last second about what is real and what imagined, and whether Martha has entirely snapped the tether of sanity. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Two long hours of murky photography and slow-motion storytelling, in which the audience is always 10 scenes ahead of the action. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's one thing for a work of art to ambiguously reveal depths of emotion and meaning; it's something else again to dangle the promise of meaning that never arrives. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Sean Durkin's compulsively watchable first film is a psychological thriller camouflaged as an Ingmar Bergman-style country-house drama. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Martha Marcy May Marlene" will stick with you. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Olsen's performance is a triumph of constraint. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It slowly but assuredly packs on the dread and the discomfort in a style that Roman Polanski would admire, resulting in the kind of movie you can feel tensing up the base of your spine. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Once we've got over the frustration of this promising film's abrupt ending, we're left with the feeling that you can escape a cult but you can't escape yourself. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Olsen's unlined face is like the unbroken water of a deep lake, reflecting both innocence and guile as she maintains a marvelous and inscrutable presence. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A sensitive treatment of a sensational subject that heralds the arrival of talented tyro Sean Durkin behind the camera and promising new star Elizabeth Olsen. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: A deft, old-school psychological thriller (or perhaps horror film) that relies mainly on the power of suggestion and memories of hippie cult crazies. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Shot in long, quiet takes of bucolic idylls, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" sneaks up on viewers with a barely perceptible sense of oncoming dread. Read more