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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lantern to present ‘Son of Saul’ Feb. 26

Dan Webster

It'll probably screen too late to help you win your office Oscar pool, but the Magic Lantern just announced that it will open the Oscar-nominated Foreign Language film "Son of Saul" on Friday, Feb. 26. The Oscars broadcast will follow on Sunday, Feb. 28.

"Son of Saul," which is Hungary's Oscar entry and which won the juried Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is perhaps the overall favorite in a field that includes France's "Mustang," Jordan's "Theeb," Colombia's "Embrace of the Serpent" and Denmark's "A War." In fact, one website — Indiewire.com — says the "Son of Saul" … "definitely seems like the film to beat here."

Rottentomatoes.com, which gives "Son of Saul" a 95 percent Tomatometer rating among critics, describes writer-director ' film this way: "In this searing drama, a concentration camp inmate tasked with burning the dead discovers the body of his young son, and must choose between participating in the clandestine uprising being planned among the prisoners, or securing a proper Jewish burial for his child." 

Here are some of the more sterling reviews:

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "Nemes has made a gripping film almost entirely free of movie heroics or placating visual strategies. It's not an easy experience. Nor should it be."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Finally, a cinematic genre heretofore mired in pietistic melodrama and safe aesthetic distance has been blown open and virtually reinvented, even the well-known contours of its subject matter reinvested with urgency, meaning and mournful honesty."

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: "It's impossible to be a lover of cinema without having been down this road before in films like Schindler's List and The Pianist. But Nemes is telling his story in a revolutionary new way — and it's devastating."

It isn't feel-good "Brooklyn," which has been attracting audiences to the Lantern for weeks now. But it is another sign of the theater's ongoing attempt to bring the best cinema possible to Spokane.