Proteus (2004)

Critic Reviews

• Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail

  Grounded by the stark physicality of the location and the emotional charge generated by those prison-bound passions (Jean Genet would have approved).

• Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

  Is it a movie or the best-designed episode of Nova ever?

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  Involving and affecting even if it is not completely coherent or fully realized.

• Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

  Clearly attempting to make the story relevant for contemporary times, they use a variety of stylistic devices that serves to have the opposite effect, distancing us from a story that might have been far more compelling if rendered in a direct fashion.

• John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle

  The movie's pretty much a stinker.

• Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

  A challenging, flawed look at a little-known slice of history.

• Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

  The problem with Proteus is that the issues tend to overwhelm the story, and one is never fully engaged in the narrative.

• Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  David Lebrun's wonderful documentary brings Haeckel's artistic and scientific triumph to life through a beautifully written narration.

• David Elliott, San Diego Union-Tribune

  Frankly steamed sex scenes spice the film from John Greyson and Jack Lewis, gaining it entry to gay festivals but only momentarily rousing it from the fetid doldrums of a fatiguingly 'instructive' story.

• Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, TheMovieChicks.com

  The biggest failing of the movie is that it focuses on the scientific experiments and the facts of the case instead of the emotion of the situation.

• Mary Brennan, Seattle Times

  Problematic on almost all levels.

• Bridget Byrne, Boxoffice Magazine

  An intelligently rendered film (shot on video) that doesn't seek to make its central characters overtly sympathetic even as it stresses the human rights so thoughtlessly or deliberately denied them.

• Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly

  Carries an air of forced-wit experimentation that never quite gets its anachronisms in order.

• S. James Wegg, JWR

  ... the story of lust, love and betrayal intriguingly bemoans racism and prejudice of bygone times while peppering the 'history' with more modern references ...

• Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

  Homophobia and hyprocisy, history and legend, racism and jealousy, cruelty and love all figure in -- and prove too much.

Read all 15 critic reviews