For most of its running time, The Student is immensely compelling, a terrifying ride between hothouse realism and dreamy metaphor.

His social criticism can be heavy-handed, but his direction of actors (many of whom had never appeared in a movie before this one) is remarkable; Pyotr Skvortsov is terrifying in the lead.

A serious, sharply mounted drama that gets more engrossing as it moves along.

Ironically allows antireligious pedagogics and dogmas overtake [Kirill Serebrennikov's] story, itself a cautionary tale on the dangers of pedagogical and dogmatic thinking.