Post Tenebras Lux

R

Released May 1, 2013

2 hr. 0 min.

Drama

List

53%

60 Reviews

Tomatometer

50%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Juan and his urban family move to the countryside.

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Critics Consensus

Post Tenebras Lux conjures striking imagery amidst its formless exploration into darkness and light, but director Carlos Reygadas paints his abstract work with the slowest of brushstrokes.

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Audience Member

All the reviewers that superficially reacted to this film as just another self-indulgent art house ego trip made me laugh. I hate and ridicule those as much as anyone. Not this film. I'm not going to bother adding my synopsis and interpretation to the heap, you can do that on your own. And that's the point, if you can have a mind to make your own connections and formulate your own ideas, you should have no problems with PTL. No surprise the vast horde of trained seals out there confuse legitimate art with the pretentious counterfeits they so loudly bark their praises for. Rich photography with shots that linger long enough to actually absorb them. A refreshing lack of the usual gimmicks: moving close-ups, romantic schmaltz and tearful, blubbering melodrama. The story is self-contained and original, the acting genuine, minimalist and moving. Attributes sorely lacking in hollywood and contemporary cinema in general. And Natalia's rendition of 'it's a dream' near the end hit me like nothing that whining, glass shattering ol' prick Neil Young ever did. Not going to say its perfect but we need more like this.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Mesmerizing on its visuals and a refreshing story-telling make of this slow-borning film something worth to watch.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I have never watched a Carlos Reygadas film before... well now I know I won't be seeing other of his films again. Pretentious to the level that would make Jodorowsky puke. A banana glue to a museum is less pretentious than this. I have seen better acting in porn movies. (Maybe this last point is difficult to detect to non Native Spanish speakers, but it is the worst) There is no doubt that the only people that watch his movies are the ones that because of work they have to see it. He is no Tarkovsky that's for sure

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

raphael g

I thought it was incredibly beautiful. It caused a nice discussion amongst friends afterwards. It must be seen at a cinema; the images and the sound are amazing.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

this is a fucking master piece since everything is a fantasy in dreams of Reygadas and only one that can be real is INTERNET as body of devil and unreasonable facts for what human beings fight and maybe kill them each others. terrenal things. EXCELLENT MOVIE WITH DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF CINEMA. NO FOR EVERYONE.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I'm not sure that this movie was made to be understood. I also don't know if there was a script and that is alright because I also don't know what did I just watched. If I had to give an answer I would say that this was a collage of dreams. I do know that I loved the work of the cinematographer and his impressionist image style.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Carlos Reygadas

Director

Adolfo Jiménez Castro

Juan

Nathalia Acevedo

Natalia

Willebaldo Torres

El Siete

Eleazar Reygadas

Eleazar

Rut Reygadas

Rut

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J. Hoberman

ARTINFO.com

If only the movie were as terrific as its 10-minute pre-title sequence.

Feb 22, 2019

Full Review

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

metro.co.uk

It's either a sublime work of genius or a drearily pretentious nightmare. Possibly both.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 1, 2017

Full Review

Dan Sullivan

Film Comment Magazine

Post Tenebras Lux is a film rich with sheer material presence, making good on Reygadas's apparent intention to make the viewer truly feel the audible and the visible, but his pictorial gimmickry can only do so much aesthetic heavy-lifting.

Nov 5, 2013

Full Review

Kip Mooney

College Movie Review

It's not enjoyable, it's not challenging. It's only frustrating.

Rated: C-

Sep 18, 2021

Full Review

Jordan M. Smith

IONCINEMA.com

Post Tenebras Lux weaves an austere narrative around the crumbling of family life in rural Mexico while dropping in autobiographical clues of Reygadas' own upbringing in often breathtakingly beautiful moments of serene cinema.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 12, 2020

Full Review

C.J. Prince

Way Too Indie

I still can't deny that parts of the film resonated with me, and down the road I might come to appreciate it more, but right now I feel mostly indifferent to what I saw.

Rated: 6/10

Jul 2, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Juan and his urban family move to the countryside.

Director: Carlos Reygadas
Screenwriter: Carlos Reygadas
Distributor: Strand Releasing
Production Co: IMCINE, Le Pacte, The Match Factory, Mantarraya Producciones, Topkapi Films, No Dream Cinema, Arte France Cinema, Foprocine
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (Theaters): May 1, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 21, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $38.9K