Sin amor

Andrey Zvyagintsev is one of the best directors nowadays and i truly regard Loveless his greatest film so far. It is a complex, deep portrait of a society in decay since it is composed of superficial people, extremely selfish and harsh. What really matters is their little world and their perfect image which is filtered through the social media. People totally empty whose attitude will have tragic consequences. Loveless is a socking experience because of its unbearable truth. This society that is described could be anywhere. Not only in Russia. So, besides the perfect screenplay, Loveless carries an absolutely powerful direction and a hauntingly beautiful cinematography. Moreover editing, music and acting are all top class. Loveless is an unforgettable experience, a film that is recommended to everyone. It will make you think and think for good. 10/10

Tells a tragic story with a beautiful and cold cinematography. Features powerful performances (specially with the roles of the mother, the father and the grandmother) although it suffers from a slow pace throught its long runtime. There were two scenes which I found particulary remarkable, those being: the one in the morgue and the argument with the grandmother. I felt some lack of character development and I wish I could have seen more of the kid, since we pretty much just followed the parents' point of view. Overall, the film managed to keep me interested and plugged even with a slow rythm, the acting and the direction of photography were its main strenghts. 7.7

Moscow, 2012: Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) are a miserably married couple preparing for a divorce as they try to sell their apartment. Each has a new lover as they prepare for their new lives but both are negligent of their tormented twelve-year old son, Alyosha (Matvey Novikov) - thus causing a major twist in the story.

Director/co-writer Andrey Zvyagintsev created a sensation with the very powerful "Leviathan" released in 2014. The earlier film was very critical of the authorities in Russian society (which irked actual Russian authorities) while "Loveless" is critical of the degradation of Russian individuals and society in general. Some characters are more attached to their smartphones than to the people around them. Boris is attached to the endless news cycle. (In one such scene, it is fascinating to hear the biased Russian media's take on the troubles in Ukraine a few years back).

Boris's worst characteristic is his extreme indifference to others while Zhenya is a verbally abusive monster. It is easy to despise her for the way she treats her husband and son but her story is brought to the forefront when the viewer witnesses her with her equally monstrous mother (Natalya Potapova). At this point the viewer sees Zhenya as someone at both ends of the tragic "unwanted child" syndrome - a trait that is sadly hereditary.

Among Zvyagintsev's gifts is the way he handles sex scenes. Rather than the quasi-pornography that is rampant in modern films, the sex scenes in this film are actually erotic and intimate. And despite the film's title, they do represent rare moments when people are loving toward each other.

He is also adept at maintaining a bleak mood throughout the film - one that reflects most of the characters and the society around them. There is an extended scene that involves an abandoned building. One can't help but observe that the building looks functional and even pleasant in some rooms. Like some of the human characters, it was unnecessarily neglected and left to rot.

The epilogue of "Loveless" takes place a few years after the main story. Without giving anything away, its conclusion is sad yet not altogether surprising considering the scenes that preceded it. It's the right conclusion for a very good film with very powerful performances. And its subtle jab against the degradation of people via modern technology is not just a Russian problem; it's truly universal. - dbamateurcritic

"Loveless" (2017 release from Russia; 127 min.) brings the story of Boris and Zhenya and their 12 yr. old son Alexey. As the movie opens, school les out and Alexey takes the long way home, through a nearby park. At home, we quickly learn that Zhenya and Boris are going through a bitter and antagonizing divorce. They argue relentlessly, all the while thinking Alexey doesn't hear them But he hears them all too well... Boris and Zhenya are already in new relationships. Then one day, Alexey doesn't come home from school. Where could he be? Can Boris and Zehnya patch their personal differences in looking for their son? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Russian writer-director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who previously brought us such excellent films like 2012's Oscar-nominated Leviathan, and 2011's Elena. In "Loveless", he goes a very different direction, examining modern day life in Moscow with its endless apartment buildings, and the correlating urban loneliness. The very bitter feelings between Boris and Zhenya are at times shocking, but feel very real. The two Russian actors playing the roles of Boris and Zhenya are unknown to me, but are nothing short of outstanding. I absolutely love how Zvyagintsev chooses a camera angle and setup, and then simply lets the scene unfold. Check the lunch scene between Boris and his co-worker, where they discuss their company's policy on divorce, all playing out over several minutes in a single take without any camera angle changes. The second half of the movie, focusing on the search for Alexey, is simply chilling and by the end of the movie I was emotionally spent. That is of course a dead giveaway that I was emotionally involved and invested in the movie, the sign of a top quality movie, "Loveless" was nominated at this year's Oscars for Best Foreign Language Movie, but did not win. I have now seen all 5 of the Oscar nominated movies in this category, and with all due respect to the Oscar winner "A Fantastic Woman", I have no doubt in my mind that "Loveless" is a better movie, and should've won. Alas, I am also quite certain that quite a few of the Oscar voters were turned off by the very bleak nature of "Loveless", in fact quite the opposite of "A Fantastic Woman". After the thinly-veiled criticism of the Russian authorities in "Leviathan", it came as no surprise that the Russian government refused any funding for "Loveless", so Zvyagintsev had to obtain funding from elsewhere (mostly Western Europe).

"Loveless" premiered at last year's Cannes festival to immediate critical acclaim. It finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (4 people in total, including myself). That is a darn shame. Hopefully this movie will gain a wider audience as it gets distributed on various platforms. If you are in the mood for a devastating family drama movie that is nothing short of top-notch, I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Loveless is a depressingly profound experience.

It paints the world as it is, not shying away from showing the bitter emptiness, disconnect and sorrow (which we usually choose to ignore) that surrounds our society. The desperate search for happiness, the unbelievable selfishness, lack of compassion and love, as the title suggests, that seperates generations of people in our modern times of self-absorbed("anti")social media. The film manages to achive these incredible feats (without being preachy) in its fantastically written and acted multi-layered and complex characters, whom as the story goes on beautifully unravel from just simple despicable people to characters that you understand and by the end sort of empathize with and pity (though not all of them: the character of the father is kind of an exception, he's a bit underdeveloped). Though our main characters represent what is wrong with our society, Loveless manages to keep a hopeful balance showing the good side as well with its selfless side-characters, the search party.

Andrey Zvyagintsev's direction is immaculate, from the beautiful cinematography, with its lingering shots of the dreary Russian winterlands and cityscapes filling you with a sense of melancholy and loneliness, to the authentic writing and the tragic story itself.

Loveless is a tough watch that challenges the warped values of the 21st century, holding a mirror towards our modern society, still unable to escape the same endless cycle it's always been trapped in. A dour but realistic meditation on humanity's need for love.

/as schmaltzy or cheesy as this review sounds I assure you the film is the furthest thing from being those things./