Keep the Lights On Reviews

It all has the feel of a pretentious film student desperately trying to make a statement with his thesis film. It's extremely overwrought with laughable melodrama.

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4

The movie over-blurs the line between plain and plaintive. It's not necessarily craziness you crave, it's inflection; it's need, if not from the characters then from the filmmaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

The two characters are ciphers, and the script, which Sachs co-wrote with Mauricio Zacharias, is by turns underwritten or banal.

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Sachs' use of a gay relationship doesn't cast any particular new light on the subject of addiction, nor does addiction offer new insight into gay relationships.

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Long before the eighth fraught reunion between this self-serious drama's ultimately mismatched (and uninteresting) gay lovers, you may find yourself tuning out.

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Such is the stuff of high drama, but "Keep the Lights On" maintains an oddly distant air.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Keep the Lights On is an intense, haunting and gut-wrenchingly honest character drama about how addiction can tear love apart.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A visually arresting and wholly compelling drama, thanks to its gorgeously warm cinematography, pleasing soundtrack and impressive and convincing performances from its two male leads.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

In trying to capture a moment in time, Sachs has left nothing uncovered. Navigating his darkest moments with unsparing honesty, he finds a flicker of hope.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

Small in frame but large in heart.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

A poignant case study in the changing contours of gay life.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

When you summon memories of this film, they are almost always of two men in a room, in a default state of discontent.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

What makes Keep the Lights On more interesting than your average addiction story is the subtle suggestion that Erik's dependence on Paul and his messes is just as debilitating as Paul's taste for drugs.

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Bless [Sachs] for eschewing melodrama in favor of tenderness, but his characters are often left adrift in a sea of conflicting emotions.

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Authentic...by turns, heartbreaking and hopeful. Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth are exquisite.

Full Review | Original Score: A

The best film of 2012...Perfect.

Full Review | Original Score: A

Gay love story keeps the focus tight and personal, with strong sex scenes and very naturalistic acting.

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A harsh yet delicate tale of two New Yorkers whose co-dependent relationship is fueled by sex, drugs and complex longings for companionship.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

"Keep the Lights On" is both warm and a bit inscrutable. It feels like the work of a man who's in a better place but still sifting through past heartache.

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I suspect it will have particular appeal for those who struggle with addiction.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

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