91% Footnote

All Critics (69) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (6)

"Footnote" deals with ambition, isolation, the dangers of too much success and the inevitable gap between generations.

Footnote requires little knowledge of Judaism and its texts. Rather, it's about the complications of love, guilt, and rage.

Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar's tale of two Talmudic scholars set in present-day Jerusalem, while not exactly side-splitting, is quietly riotous. And, yes, the guffaws are bittersweet.

A droll, deadpan satire of the professional contempt and personal rancor that breeds in any narrow field.

Footnote is a film about the nature of truth, about sacrifice, hubris, hypocrisy. It's nothing short of brilliant.

It speaks to anyone who's been on either end of a grudge or family antagonism. And it saves its best for those who have witnessed clusters of the best and brightest descend to the level of grade school kids on the playground.

... a bitter and mordant comedy that evokes winces instead of laughs ...

Light yet heavy comedy/drama no footnote in Israeli cinema

Ultimately it's about how fathers and sons manage the added complexity in their relationship of professional rivalry - and the potential for deep wounds to be inflicted by one upon the other

It's an interesting premise with an equally interesting structure and the use of music, injecting high drama alongside a curious cat and mouse curiosity, gives the film a unique slant

This is a film that skims the surface layer of politesse from human interactions and reveals us as the blustering bundles of ego that we all are.

Cedar mines dark humor from the humiliations of identity checks and pecking orders.

...the movie works best [when it's] sending up pompous bureaucrats, petty university politics and personal jealousies.

A bright, smart and funny movie that evinces a real feel not only for the daily work of scholars but for the bloody minefields of academia.

At times, the film seems to turn into a microfiche machine, with the story's sections divided by frames thumping past us as if propelled by a researcher, eyes scanning.

A first half frivolous enough that it's not as ghastly sentimental as it seems like it could be, and with a second half brittle enough that it's not as frivolous as it was when it started out.

While the premise delves into an alien landscape for most viewers not immersed in Talmudic study in Jerusalem, the universal feeling of familial irritation and begrudging respect shines right through.

"Footnote" gets sly, subtle comedy from the similarities between the two men, particularly since Uriel is unaware how much like his dad he is.

To many viewers the picture might seem as forbidding as a dense scholarly tome. But give it a chance, and you might find it as pleasurable as a good novella.

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