Two Lovers Reviews
Mitchell Beaupre Paste Magazine
No film has captured how we idealize others in relationships better than Two Lovers.
Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 | Mar 20, 2024
Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review
Gray gives us nothing to cling to emotionally, and so he leaves the audience floating in the indifference of open space, hoping for something worthwhile to happen that might make us care.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 15, 2023
Taylor Baker Drink in the Movies
Episode 49: Hustlers / Ad Astra / Two Lovers / ALTIPLANO
Full Review | Original Score: 78/100 | Oct 18, 2021
Simran Hans New Statesman
What's striking about this particular entry in the Phoenix-as-isolated-eccentric canon is its flavour of defeated animal loneliness.
Full Review | Feb 3, 2021
Jason Best Movie Talk
Gray has made a thoughtful and sensitive chamber piece, and he gets a fine performance from Phoenix, who conveys his character's anguish and heartache with deep feeling.
Full Review | Nov 24, 2020
Yasser Medina Cinefilia
It features a solid performance by Joaquin Phoenix, but the truth is that its story about the stages of heartbreak and toxic relationships is predictable and somewhat conventional. [Full review in Spanish]
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 8, 2020
Richard Brody New Yorker
Joaquin Phoenix stars-and delivers his most self-scourging performance-in James Gray's taut and melancholy Brighton Beach romance.
Full Review | Apr 14, 2020
Felicia Feaster Charleston City Paper
But the true beauty of Two Lovers is the tightly constructed plot and accurately conceived emotions of this engaging ensemble piece.
Full Review | Jan 27, 2020
Mattie Lucas From the Front Row
The whole film feels like a throwback, at once swooningly romantic and achingly sad.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2019
Kelly Jane Torrance Washington Times
Everything about this quietly beautiful film is understated - the performances, the score and, most of all, the inner turmoil that easily can mean life or death for the most sensitive among us.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 11, 2018
Daniel Kasman MUBI
James Gray has exactly what American cinema needs-sincerity. Gray deals in melodrama-and male melodrama at that-but treats it with a solemn seriousness that makes one believe again in the earnestness of American genre cinema.
Full Review | Nov 16, 2017
Hank Sartin Time Out
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 18, 2011
Kelly Vance East Bay Express
What made the filmmakers come up with such a 1959 scenario? Better yet, how did they make this hoary plot so damned entertaining? Must be movie magic.
Full Review | Aug 16, 2011
Christine Champ Film.com
Full Review | Original Score: A | May 6, 2011
Mike Edwards What Culture
Please, don't be fooled by this. It's all showboating scenes, pretentious ideals and NO realism whatsoever.
Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 13, 2011
Jeffrey Overstreet Looking Closer
I can't stop thinking about Leonard, how I want him to be free, living an authentic life ... but also to to remain under supervision so he won't mess himself up. Phoenix is brilliant here.
Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | May 7, 2010
Marty Mapes Movie Habit
We know the characters better than they know themselves
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 13, 2010
James Wegg JWR
... it's instructive to view director/co-writer ... James Gray's take on the effects of private infidelity.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 16, 2010
Jeffrey Chen ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Tells a pretty old story but gets you hooked on its atmosphere and how it embellishes the heady sensation of shedding the coldness of solitude and depression with the warmth of walking through a new romance.
Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 25, 2010
Brandy McDonnell The Oklahoman
Sure, Phoenix's current foray to hip-hop is uncomfortably bizarre to behold, but at least it's not as painfully boring and predictable as what he claims is his last film.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 22, 2010