The Act of Killing (2012)

Oppenheimer's film is a Brechtian socio-political marvel that provocatively mixes movie romance with genocide horror by letting the unrepentant killers re-enact their crimes. Its slippery, empathetic approach creates high drama and profound questions about memory, cinema and complicity.

Oppenheimer's powerful and original film succeeds by focusing on the killers' reconstructions of their crimes, capturing the distortion of meanings and the lingering corruption of the past in the present. It throws up extreme characters and leaves the viewer with endless provocative questions.

The critic calls the film a devastating, surreal must-see that shows perpetrators of Indonesian genocide re-enacting their crimes on camera. It is praised for exposing the killers' self-delusion and revealing uncomfortable truths about human nature.

A surreal, chilling and unprecedented examination of atrocity and accountability that captures a mass murderer's conscience and its evolution in a revelatory way. The killers' Hollywood-style re-enactments of their 1965 crimes make for powerful creative political documentary filmmaking.

Oppenheimer's extraordinary documentary uses film as a medium for historical reckoning by having the killers direct their own reenactments. The approach leads to surreal and harrowing moments that force confrontation with the past, culminating in a powerful verité breakdown that redeems the project.

This pungent, surreal documentary of mass murder in Sixties Indonesia is essential viewing and a bold reckoning with Indonesia’s horrific past. It asks the perpetrators to demonstrate what they did, culminating in an unforgettable final moment of suppressed horror and guilt.

The film is one of the most lucid portraits of evil ever seen, bizarre yet gripping as it lets unpunished executioners reenact their crimes in movie genres of their choosing. It powerfully exposes the perpetrators' self-delusions and lack of remorse while revealing universal truths about evil.

The film is a remarkable and at times unwatchably explicit documentary in which unrepentant perpetrators of 1960s Indonesian mass killings eagerly re-enact their atrocities. It functions as a radical dive into history, grabbing the past in a way a conventional documentary would not.

The critic finds the documentary hard to describe and difficult to watch, focusing on perpetrators restaging their crimes in bizarre ways. He questions the wisdom of the approach but notes it raises persistent questions about evil and impunity.

The critic praises the film's innovative approach to documenting genocide by exploring the killers' fantasies and inner world rather than standard forensic or moral travelogue formats. It singles out the emotional shift toward pity for perpetrator Anwar Congo as a form of moral retribution achieved through the filmmaking process.

The critic argues the film is overpraised and questions its lack of historical context, production details, and potentially manipulative editing of the killers' re-enactments. He acknowledges its disturbing power but sees it as a flawed Western footnote to Indonesian filmmakers' work on the same history.

The critic finds the unorthodox documentary brave, provocative, and imaginative in its approach to Indonesian mass executions. It offers a fascinating look at the corrosive aftereffects of genocide and political corruption through the killers' self-directed reenactments.

The critic praises the film's inventive and profoundly upsetting approach to documenting the Indonesian massacres through the killers' re-enactments. He highlights its dogged inquiry into historical atrocities and the unsettling blend of horror and dark humor.

The review describes the film as a shattering, intensely unsettling and riveting masterpiece of visceral power, praising its exploration of evil, moral apocalypse, and the cathartic yet destructive nature of storytelling through the killers' reenactments.

The critic highlights the film's creative and powerful exploration of the moral implications of murder through the killers' reenactments in cinematic styles. It singles out Anwar Congo's journey toward confronting the gravity of his crimes as particularly effective.

The critic calls the film a mind-bending picture that is deeply disturbing, darkly comic, and endlessly fascinating, using media to explore how killers created by violent entertainment might confront their actions. It focuses on perpetrators like Anwar Congo in a surreal culture where mass murderers are celebrated.

The critic calls the film a masterpiece that is powerful, surreal, frightening and unprecedented, praising its bravery as a filmmaker's feat and its original, harrowing reflection on genocide told by the perpetrators themselves.

The critic finds the documentary a poignant yet incredibly disturbing exploration of mass murderers who reenact their crimes, praising its emotional power, the way it reveals their guilt and humanity, and the impactful finale.