Foxtrot (2017)

The critic praises Maoz’s marvelous, harrowing drama for its paradoxes, blending intimate parental grief with absurdist soldier scenes at a remote checkpoint. The film is lauded for its original vision, stylistic range, and emotional depth as an effective antiwar statement.

Samuel Maoz’s second feature is beautiful deadpan satire with many surprises in store, offering a brilliant portrait of Israeli frustrations. It stands out for its formal audacity and emotional depth as a festival standout.

The ambitious film combines intense emotional drama with visual pizazz and bursts of unexpected surrealism in an intricate, dazzling cinematic dance. It is profound and moving, wild and crazy at the same time, offering both a specific story and an emotional snapshot of a country at risk.

The film is a searing examination of grief, fate, and the music of chance, inspired by a personal near-tragedy. It blends stark realism with striking, memorable imagery across its tripartite structure, proving both specific to Israeli experience and universal.

The critic describes the film as a shattering, restrained portrait of family grief structured like a three-act tragedy. They single out its obsessive visual economy and the way it unveils layers of past guilt in the characters beyond mere mourning.

The critic praises Maoz’s follow-up to Lebanon as an elegant, multifaceted film that expands on themes of trauma with absurdism and rage. It singles out the film’s compelling structure and bitterly cruel final twist for particular note.

The film is a bold, anguishing critique of contemporary Israel and the army’s use of young recruits, depicting grief and soldiering as a surreal dance with destiny. Its originality lies in difficult, intense narration that ultimately makes perfect sense.

The movie builds into a devastating indictment of a nation through shock after brutal shock, with meaning emerging slowly in details and a mounting sense of helplessness. It starts with a grabber of an opening that reflects the violence and apathy at its core.

Icy absurdism and sorrowful ironies abound in Foxtrot, a tragic and brutally cosmically absurd portrait of a man and society refusing to confront scars of war. Maoz builds a puzzle-like narrative of grief, terror, and rage through dreamlike imagery and off-kilter humor centered on militarization’s absurdities.

Foxtrot is a striking triptych of war, grief, and fate that turns wrenching material into conceptually and stylistically audacious cinema through its nonlinear structure and surreal imagery. It presents lives at the mercy of cosmic, karmic design without much comfort.

The critic highlights Maoz’s masterful opening depiction of parental trauma and the film’s mixture of closely observed grief with artful, witty image-making. They single out the second act’s biting insight into the dangers of arming vulnerable young soldiers at a crumbling desert checkpoint.

Foxtrot is a punishing drama thick with grief, confusion, and metaphor that toes the line of black comedy while evoking life in a traumatized, militaristic state. A filmmaker able to speak wholly in metaphor, Maoz creates a rare, corrosive portrait that feels like a badge of honor.

Maoz understands the hallucinatory force of grief and the sense of confinement, delivering a triptych with irreproachable skill that includes dance numbers, camel gags, and a cruel farce. The mild coda with the parents sharing a joint has stayed with the critic more than anything else.

A devastating sense of cruel futility drives the daring film, using its tripartite structure to encompass a litany of Israeli attributes from machismo to racism and grief. The first section delivers hothouse intensity, the second hyperrealistic surrealism, and the third a stark finality.

The film is structurally fascinating yet flawed, with its ambiguities undercut by a whimsical reveal. Maoz creates moving moments and surreal disorientation in the triptych structure exploring family grief, military life, and official secrecy.

The critic finds the film a pristinely sculpted tale of familial desolation and political folly that impresses through craft and caustic emotion. They single out the glib punchline ending as an irritating flaw that undercuts the preceding impact.

The critic hails the film as one of the year's best for its absurdist yet profoundly human take on grief, fate, and the futility of conflict, blending dark humor with gut-punch sadness across its three-part structure. Impeccable performances, particularly by Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler, are singled out alongside striking formal experimentation.

The critic commends Maoz's rhythmic, three-chapter structure that balances emotional intensity with metaphors about fate, guilt, mourning, and family dynamics in Israel. The lead performances, especially Lior Ashkenazi's nuanced portrayal of suffering, and striking imagery are highlighted as particularly effective.

The critic praises the film's innovative three-act structure mixing surrealism and raw emotion in its exploration of grief, loss, and Israeli politics, while avoiding clichés. Strong performances by Lior Ashkenazi and Sarah Adler as the grieving parents are singled out as highlights.

The critic finds the film a provocative and heartbreaking tale about people in a seemingly never-ending state of crisis. She singles out the mix of straightforward realism, deadpan surrealism, historical horror and domestic tragedy for being harrowingly impactful.

The critic finds it a dry and languid but ultimately rewarding drama that uses restraint and a matter-of-fact approach to explore grief in the context of endless conflict. Praises the procedural details of grief processing and the structure highlighting boredom vs. sudden violence.