‘About Elly’, an Iranian psychological thriller from Oscar-winner director Asghar Farhadi, is among the top ten on the film critics’ list, selected from the best of 2015 screenings in the US.
Annually, as the year-end approaches, Metacritic website that aggregates reviews of movies collects the top ten list published by major film critics and publications. This year, their running tally of the films most frequently mentioned by individual critics, includes Farhadi’s ‘About Elly’, which although produced in 2009 in Iran, was screened for 160 days, from April till October, in the US.
According to the website, the film is mentioned in 10 critics’ lists, in different rankings. Sheila O’Malley from RogerEbert.com put it on the top of his list. It is ranked second in the Associated Press critic Jake Coyle’s list.
Two more critics at RogerEbert.com, Steven Boone and Steven Erickson put it on the 5th and 6th place respectively.
Jason Bailey from Film School Rejects blog and Cary Darling of Fort Worth Star Telegramý, US daily newspaper, both placed it on the 7th rank in their lists.
Mark Dujsik of RogerEbert.com and Michael Atkinson from Village Voice weekly newspaper gave it a 9th ranking and Mike D’Angelo from A.V. Club website put it at the end of his list.
“If you have been electrified by Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’ (2011) – which won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film - and ‘The Past’ (2013), you are well aware of the filmmaker’s formidable skill with pure narrative torque. His filmmaking is both sophisticated and crystal-clear. However, it’s his scripts, the inexorable tension of his carefully constructed stories, that do the heaviest lifting,” wrote Atkinson about Farhadi.
The two-hour movie, shown at only 16 theatres in the US, grossed over $470,000. It is about a group of upper middle class, grown-up college friends who go for a weekend to the Caspian Sea coast. But everything goes wrong when one of them goes missing. As the film unravels more secrets are revealed.
David Bordwell, American film theorist and film historian, said of the film, “a masterpiece. The less you know in advance, the better”.
“If you give an answer to your viewer, your film will simply finish in the movie theatre. But when you pose questions, your film actually begins after people watch it. In fact, your film will continue inside the viewer,” said director Farhadi.
It was Farhadi’s start to global fame. The movie brought him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 59th International Berlin Film Festival.
Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hoseini, Merila Zare’i, Peyman Moaadi, and Mani Haqiqi are in the cast.
Since its global debut screening in 2009, the film has collected positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes website reports a 98% approval rating. Internet Movie Database (IMDB) shows an average rating of 8.1/10 and according to Metacritic, the film holds a score of 87 out of 100.
