An Unfinished Film

The vertiginous condensing of fiction and nonfiction, of past and present, has a radically destabilizing effect that’s inseparable from the audacity of Lou’s political vision.

Life gets in the way of art all the time, and art can be made out of life. What matters, the movie suggests, is hanging onto one another for dear life.

If the frames of Lou’s previous work suggested that reality was something that could be unlocked and unfurled, An Unfinished Film’s presentation of reality as it basically was unfortunately gives the filmmaker, and the audience, little to discover.

It’s the ominous build-up to the lockdown that has the characteristic urgency, tension, and suspense associated with Lou Ye’s cinema. It is the part that is gripping, involving as well as emotionally exhausting—that feeling of being trapped...

Nostalgic docufiction that morphs into a lockdown thriller.

This is an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us.

Shies away from interrogating the unique circumstances that the Chinese people found themselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’d be a herculean task to construct an objective history that captures all the dynamics of this unprecedented time.


[T]he story becomes one of stretches of boredom and repetition.

It’s gripping, reflective, dramatic, and even a bit humorous.

All of the behind the scenes drama and real life circumstances surrounding the shooting are what’s most interesting here. Except that in this case these outside factors [...] essentially become the film. The result is a fascinating watch.