Review of Son of Saul (2015) by Sergio Andres P — 27 Feb 2016

Lots of great movies came out last year, but only Son of Sail belongs in the pantheon. As a cinematic work on the Holocaust, it ranks up there with the documentaries Night and Fog and Shoah. It captures the sensual reality of the Holocaust like nothing else.

You gag on the gas and shoveled ashes and burning corpses, listen to the layered sound track for a hint of peril, pray you can walk past a crowd without getting slapped or clubbed or kicked. It's unique visual style is as innovative as anything by Griffith, Eisenstein, and Welles.

A night scene of slaughter and cremation surpassed anything Heironymus Bosch thought up. And the final tracking shot, a poetic depiction of crushed (and resurrected?) hope will haunt and perplex you forever.

A great and universal work of art.