--- title: "The Look of Silence: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence" critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 26 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Look of Silence (2014): what the critics said Critics' score 84 from 26 reviews: 24 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative. ## Little White Lies — Sophie Monks Kaufman Rating 5/5/5. 12 June 2015. Oppenheimer's follow-up to The Act of Killing is bloodcurdling and brilliant, a devastating hybrid of intellectual and emotional fearlessness. It singles out the anguished tribute to victims struggling against the erasure of their experiences. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-look-of-silence) ## Time Out — Joshua Rothkopf Rating 5/5. 26 August 2014. Festival review. This is a superior, powerfully confrontational work that follows The Act of Killing and features the bold presence of victim’s brother Adi. It singles out the real-life potency of Adi’s ruined expressions and defiant questioning during confrontations with perpetrators. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-look-of-silence) ## The AV Club — A.A. Dowd Rating A. 16 July 2015. Describes it as a powerful and vital companion piece that gives voice to survivors through direct confrontations, though less conceptually daring than its predecessor. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-look-of-silence-is-a-powerful-vital-companion-piec-1798184356) ## Financial Times — Nigel Andrews Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 June 2015. The documentary is harrowing and even better than its predecessor, using an inspired method with the optometrist confronting killers to expose ongoing atrocities without authorial outrage. The criminals hang themselves through their own boasts. [Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/3c413068-102a-11e5-ad5a-00144feabdc0) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 June 2015. The film is a stunning follow-up that shifts focus to the victims' families, who confront the killers. It enters the realm of tragedy with remarkable visual beauty and heartbreaking backstory centered on Adi's dignity and his elderly parents. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/11/the-look-of-silence-review-a-stunning-unmissable-sequel-to-the-act-of-killing) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 July 2015. The film is a simpler and better work than its predecessor, following one man's calm quest for details about his brother's murder and cataloguing the excuses of the guilty amid tense tranquility. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/27/small-victories) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 July 2015. The film is a painful, profoundly empathetic work of moral reckoning that examines the mass killings in Indonesia and the ongoing ideology that justifies them. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/movies/review-the-look-of-silence-confronts-individuals-and-ideology-of-indonesian-massacre.html) ## Variety — Guy Lodge Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 27 August 2014. Festival review. The film is a stunning companion piece that shifts emphasis to the victims while maintaining the predecessor’s moral complexities, keen sociological shading and devastating jabs of humor. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/venice-film-review-the-look-of-silence-1201292224/) ## Evening Standard — Charlotte O'Sullivan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 12 June 2015. This is an extraordinary follow-up to The Act of Killing that focuses on the impact of the Indonesian massacres on survivor Adi, an optometrist confronting the killers of his brother. The film is praised for its hypnotic portrayal of Adi turning from hunter to hunted during his direct, personal interrogations. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-look-of-silence-review-how-to-spot-your-brother-s-killer-by-examining-his-eyes-10316177.html) ## Film Comment — Jonathan Romney Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). The critic finds the film a calm, contemplative companion to The Act of Killing, more emotionally raw in its direct confrontations yet offset by visual beauty and formal elegance. Adi’s quiet dignity and the perpetrators’ unrepentant revelations are singled out as especially powerful. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/film-of-the-week-the-look-of-silence/) ## Vulture Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 18 July 2015. Calls the film necessary and more conventional than its predecessor, praising its focus on victims and the power of testimony and confrontation through intimate, dramatic filming. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/2015/07/profoundly-sad-look-of-silence-is-necessary.html) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 28 August 2014. Festival review. The film stands apart as a less flashy but more intimate portrait focused on a soft-spoken optometrist confronting killers from his brother's murder. It singles out the quiet dignity, anger and courage of Adi and his mother as the tonal measure amid tense and uncomfortable encounters. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/the-look-of-silence/5076727.article) ## The Times — Camilla Long Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 14 June 2015. This masterful follow-up is more surgical and meaningful than the first film, focusing on Adi the optician confronting death-squad leaders. It is unrelenting, desperate, sad and mesmerising in exploring the legacy of the killings. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/jurassic-world-and-the-look-of-silence-7vn00gbzq3n) ## IndieWire — Eric Kohn Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 September 2014. Festival review. Calls it a first-rate followup that provides the survivors a voice in a more traditional documentary style, contextualizing the protagonist's quest amid family life and history. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-the-look-of-silence-is-joshua-oppenheimers-first-rate-followup-to-the-act-of-killing-22696/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 24 July 2015. The film is a shocking and significant companion piece that illuminates one of recent history’s great horrors through the victims’ perspective, though it is exceptionally difficult to watch. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-look-of-silence-review-20150724-column.html) ## Sight and Sound — Nick Pinkerton Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 11 June 2015. The film is a companion piece to The Act of Killing that examines the possibility of truth and reconciliation through the eyes of a victim's family member. It singles out the intimate confrontations conducted by optician Adi with former killers as a powerful means of probing historical silence. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-look-silence) ## Slant Magazine — James Lattimer Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 13 July 2015. Notes that the film remains gripping despite its approach, criticizing the sensationalism, manipulation, and staged elements while acknowledging its intensity and outrage. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-look-of-silence/) ## The Hollywood Reporter — THR Staff Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 27 August 2014. Festival review. Praises the film as riveting for its focus on one man's personal confrontation with his brother's killers, noting it is frank and shocking. Criticizes the morbid fascination, gruesome details, and lack of delicacy and restraint in its approach. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/look-silence-venice-review-728686/) ## HeyUGuys — Jo-Ann Titmarsh Rating 5/5. 28 August 2014. Festival review. The film creates a haunting diptych with its more personal approach, following one man's quest for truth and accountability from the perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide. It is more emotionally engaging than its predecessor, with visual poetry and a glimmer of hope in reconciliation. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-look-of-silence-review/) ## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff Rating A. 13 July 2015. Festival review. The follow-up is an ululating lament and spellbinding equal to The Act of Killing, transformed in tone but undiminished in power, with masterful imagery, soundtrack, and focus on Adi's courageous restraint amid horror. It meditates poignantly on legacy, bravery, and the search for truth. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/review-joshua-oppenheimers-spellbinding-the-look-of-silence-20150713/) ## Collider — Matt Goldberg Rating A-. 17 July 2015. The film is a jaw-dropping work of non-fiction that lets victims confront perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide through Adi, an optometrist seeking answers about his brother's murder. It highlights the haunting impunity and silence that persist decades later. [Read the review](https://collider.com/the-look-of-silence-movie-review/) ## Consequence Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 August 2015. The film is a breathtaking, haunting documentary that examines survivors' guilt, propaganda, and repressed memory through Adi's risky confrontations with aging death squad leaders. It powerfully contrasts the perpetrators' rationalizations with the victims' enduring trauma and pursuit of truth. [Read the review](https://consequence.net/2015/08/film-review-the-look-of-silence/) ## NME — Angus Batey Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 5 June 2015. The review calls the film exceptional for offering a personal perspective on Indonesia’s mid-’60s genocide through an optician confronting the killers of his brother. Adi’s courageous persistence in chipping away at the wall of silence is highlighted as astonishing. [Read the review](https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-various-artists-16116-314389) ## Paste — Christine N. Ziemba Rating 8.9. 19 July 2015. The straightforward companion piece to The Act of Killing is devastatingly powerful and elegiac, focusing on survivor Adi confronting killers under the guise of eye exams. It damns the mass murderers and the ongoing culture of fear and denial in Indonesia. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-look-of-silence) ## Eye for Film — Amber Wilkinson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 June 2015. Oppenheimer focuses the atrocity on one family's experience, with Adi confronting the killers during eye exams as a metaphor for helping them see differently. The patient camerawork lingers effectively on faces and emotions, though some scenes with Adi's father verge on exploitative. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-look-of-silence-2014-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## The Skinny — Ben Nicholson Rating ★★★★. 2 June 2015. The critic praises the film as a worthy, intimate companion piece to The Act of Killing that shifts focus to the victims’ perspective. Adi’s quietly crushing dignity while confronting the killers is singled out as the heart of this imperative and devastating documentary. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-look-of-silence) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence.md