Popular reviews

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  Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★

  Still the most richly observed love story of the last decade, with a host of potential types—the still-at-home man-child; the stable, successful woman; and the MPDG whose own erratic nature makes her both mysterious and far more understandable to a fuck-up—and upends them with lived-in performances that contextualize their follies and dreams. Gray's aesthetic here is naturally more confined than in, say, WE OWN THE NIGHT, but he still places enough distance between his camera and subjects to take in their milieu, both situating them in a specific physical context and expressing their inner sense of stagnation and sad hope. Visconti adapted the same root Dostoevsky story, but Gray gives it a Fordian angle that fiddles with expressionistic depth yet…

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  "Are you a fuckup?"

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  Review by megan ★★★

  i just want to hold joaquin phoenix's hand

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  Review by weak lungs ½ 1

  these teenagers look old

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  Review by ian ★★★★

  Are you crying?
  I'm just happy.

  How bad could it be to dive into a relationship that you know it won't work out for yourself?
  'Two lovers' is about that, the unrequited love, the chance to start over with those around you, the use and enjoyment of someone else to not feel alone.

  The end is an endless sadness, i couldn't see a sincerity in Leonard's tears because he was crying because he knows Michelle'll never be his, he knows that relationship will not work, the future of Father's company was one of reasons he came back, he saw in Sandra a cause to move on, if it had not been the same, he would have killed himself in that sea.

  Both sides are wrong, there is no right here, Michelle for deceiving Leonard, and Leonard for taking advantage of Sandra to forget about Michelle.

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  Review by comrade_yui ★★★★★

  elegantly simple but deceptively wounding, this sneaks up on you while you're not even noticing it. has aged remarkably well as a generational portrait of people whose only conception of love is based on what they think someone else wants of them, and then assuming wrongly on all accounts. really heart wrenching stuff.

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  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★

  like if The Heartbreak Kid was a horror movie, which depending on your hair color it already is. being home with your Jewish parents is just yelling “we’re out of seltzer!!” last act totally harrowing. the last great Gwyneth? not sure if Contagion counts.

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  Review by sue ★★★★ 2

  I really wanna know how old these characters are supposed to be

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  Review by Brendan Michaels 3

  As if James Gray looked deep into his own soul and decided to showcase his feelings in a film so raw, so emotional, so captivating, so gentle, so truthful, it seems impossible that any human would be this open to share it to the world. If We Own The Night proves Gray's visual capabilities, Two Lovers showcases his emotional capabilities.

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  Review by Sandy Settle ★★½ 8

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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  Review by Nick ★★★★★ 1

  Literally startling in its craft. With a cut in the third scene, from a three-quarter shot of Phoenix to a medium shot of Shaw staring right down the barrel of the lens, Gray plunges the viewer into Leonard’s increasingly cluttered headspace as he’s confronted with the ultimate manifestation of family expectations. It’s a technique that’s gaining popularity among American auteurs, but while Jenkins and even Anderson use these shot as showstoppers, Gray deploys this one with such nonchalance that you might miss it. (Indeed, I didn’t catch it on my first watch.) And the rest of the film follows suit, conveying the story in a quiet, understated style through elements like lens choice and blocking. By the final scene, when Gray once again proves his superior sense for widescreen compositions, you realize he is probably the most assured of this country’s great formalists. A masterpiece.

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  Review by Christof88 ★★★★½ 18

  The tragic story of “Two Lovers” revolves around lonely individuals searching for love in all the wrong places. It is complex and offers insightful commentary on toxic, co-dependent relationships and how people can inadvertently use each other.

  “Two Lovers” takes a rather pessimistic view on the potential for love, especially when both parties struggle with mental instability. Yet, there is some solace in the love found within the familial bond between Leonard and his parents, as well as the Jewish community depicted in New York.

  I wonder if Gray views the third act as a tragedy for Leonard and Michelle; I personally do not. While they care for each other, their fantastical getaway to San Francisco ultimately leads them back…