The movie's low-budget look neatly matches the claustrophobia of Max's life, but the filmmakers have also devised some special shooting methods for certain scenes. These sequences -- breathless and jangly chases, for the most part -- look terrific.
– Laura Miller,
Salon.com,
19 Dec 2001
fresh:
Audacious and bursting with ideas.
– Liam Lacey,
Globe and Mail,
12 Jul 2002
fresh:
It's remarkable to what extent Aronofsky has rendered the cerebral kinetically intense. The film's imaginative, diverse images create a mind's-eye urban claustrophobia.
– Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
6 Jun 2007
fresh:
We share Max's feelings of imminent psychological disintegration as the film probes our own insecurity in the face of the eternal. Maths meets millennial doom in one of the decade's true originals.
– Trevor Johnston,
Time Out,
29 Feb 2008
fresh:
Aronofsky, who has parlayed this movie's Sundance success into two Hollywood deals, is that rare indie filmmaker who doesn't want to make hip romantic sitcoms. He's a genuine experimenter with a spooky visual style.