[Christian] Mungiu has taken a leap forward into bold, focused storytelling.

Grippingly horrible.

Cristian Mungiu's masterful chronicle is impressive above all for the way it respects the audience, expecting them to follow the implications of its multifaceted tale without always spelling them out.

The bleak mise-en-scene and often handheld camerawork coupled with long takes help ground the film in this form of social realism and documentary filmmaking. Despite being set in the 1980s, there is no romanticizing or nostalgic longing for the past.