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It's the rare contemporary film that's as majestically and gruelingly rigorous in its form as in its thematic interrogations.

It tests our presumptions, makes us squirm.

It is provocative simply in showing how trust is gained and kept, even after the swindled kids have understood their robbers’ motives.

Little about [Östlund’s] work is simple-minded or cut-and-dried. His films marinate in viewer discomfort.

Pic is a little too pleased with its own evenhanded presentation of liberal moral conundrums, but there’s no gainsaying Ostlund’s remarkable achievement in coaxing entirely naturalistic perfs from his young core cast

The ultimate effect of [Östlund's] studied techniques is more restricting than beneficial, which, combined with a protracted running time, faintly self-righteous air and a perplexing, misguided coda, produces a sense of letdown at the end despite the strength of much that has come before.

May be contrived and overlong, but it is also technically distinctive and utterly compelling in its analysis of Swedish attitudes towards race.