Paradies: Liebe 2012

Karina Longworth, L.A. Weekly: It would be fitting with Seidl's apparent project if Paradise (Love) was, in some sense, a documentary of its own making. But that doesn't make its facile ironies about still-pervasive, post-colonial exploitation and dehumanization any more enlightening Read more

New York Times: Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A tour de force of meticulous cruelty, a comic melodrama that elicits laughter and empathy and then replaces those responses with squirming discomfort. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Ultimately, Paradise: Love seems interested only in making you wince, not in making you think. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The striking compositions mingle childlike curiosity with adult decadence -- and natural beauty with garish consumer culture -- to provocative, even profound effect. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: One of the most disturbing films I've seen in a very long time. Read more

Guy Lodge, Time Out: At 120 minutes, the director perhaps luxuriates in our discomfort a little too long, but it's still a relief to be on our side of the screen. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Ulrich Seidl's look at female sex tourism is compelling up to a point, and then just numbing. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: The whole affair curdles into a feeling of unearned, defensive superiority. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: That churning in your stomach may be unpleasant, but it's necessary for the film to deliver its knockout punch. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Paradise: Love is startlingly frank if narratively underdeveloped. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Seidl sternly rejects nuance. All the women are crude and insensitive, all the men are desperate and exploited. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ulrich Seidl: sadomasochistic provocateur or compassionate observer of the human condition? Read more

David Fear, Time Out: It's a tribute to Tiesel's ray of humanity that this chapter underlines its subtitle while still getting its unflinching message across. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Repulsive and sublimely beautiful, arguably celebratory and damning of its characters, it's hideous and masterful all at once. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: It might be the most lonesome film about a tropical vacation we've seen, and the greatest film ever made about the weird socioeconomics of tourism. Read more