Cristi Puiu doesn't pull his punches in his barbed black comedy on the state of socialized medicine in Hungary.
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06/04/06
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The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006)
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:68
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: Shot in naturalistic style, this is a powerful indictment of absurdity and indifference in the face of human suffering.
Theatrical Release:Apr 26, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Shot in Romania, THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU follows the title character as he waits for attention in a rundown hospital emergency ward. Fans of Lars Von Trier's THE KINGDOM should find much to love... [More]
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Reviews for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Think of this Romanian import as the anti-E.R. -- no high drama, no kinetic editing and no caring, camera-ready doctors.
04/28/06
[A] magnificently damning critique on healthcare... done with a devil's sense of humor that then calls you out on your laughter.
10/08/05
Amid all the hospital byplay, there is a trenchant portrait of a people and their society.
05/03/06
Top Critic...the cinematic equivalent of a shaggy-dog story: the inevitable, deliberately anticlimactic punchline is less important than the length to which the buildup is protracted.
05/04/06
blending social commentary with spiritual allegory, it traces one man's nocturnal descent into the Circle of Hell that is Romania's healthcare service
06/15/07
Not the easiest film of the year, but certainly among the best.
10/01/05
This deathly film is crafted with such ease that it comes appallingly alive. A slowly suffocating, masterly work of social realism that shrouds you in a melancholy look at mortality.
12/21/06
a gentle parable of the delicacy of mortality
04/25/06
The film seems pitiless as it records every detail but, as you watch a man who clings to life and an ambulance driver whose search for a hospital becomes a mythic quest, what you're left with is compassion.
06/15/06
Puiu maintains a strong current of suspense about the outcome -- despite the title, will this Lazarus be revived? --- and a bracingly cynical sense of humor that rescues the material from being a total downer.
06/15/06
The film’s real success is that Puiu impresses both with his compassion for human behaviour and his tight grip on realist, documentary-style filmmaking.
06/24/06
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, for all its terrible matter-of-factness, produces tumultuous feelings of amazement and revolt.
04/24/06
Top CriticThis Romanian movie defies categorization -- it's halfway between a black comedy and a Fred Wiseman documentary. And it haunts you like the ghost of any dead person you've ever ignored.
05/05/06
Top CriticStay with it and you'll discover a devastatingly powerful blast at red tape and an achingly moving examination of what we will all have to face one day.
07/14/06
This is not an easy film to watch, nor is it one to enthusiastically recommend to your friends. However, it will leave its mark on you.
05/23/06
Fiscuteanu's Lazarescu is a strange, compelling creation, and if you allow it time, this haunting, artful movie will get under your skin.
06/06/06
Long, but engrossing and frequently enraging drama that not only exposes the flaws in the Romanian health service, but also in modern humanity.
07/14/06
One of the the most remarkable medical dramas ever attempted.
09/28/06
A real-surreal odyssey through medical metropolis-as-inferno.
09/27/05
Latest News for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
October 05, 2006:
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This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon), chainsaw massacres in Texas... More...
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