A piercing satire, a poignant family drama and an investigation of the competing claims of honesty, loyalty, ambition and love.

I can't decide if this movie is so spectacularly, breathtakingly dumb as to induce stupidity in anyone who watches, or so brutally brilliant that it disarms all reason. What's the difference?

A piercing satire, a poignant family drama and an investigation of the competing claims of honesty, loyalty, ambition and love.

Not just a timely movie, a great one...Timbuktu feels at once timely and permanent, immediate and essential.

Subtle, funny and touching, with a striking downbeat authenticity. Director Craig Zobel is the real thing.

AN ABSOLUTELY VITAL FILM. Exacting, enraging and revelatory. A clear, temperate and devastating account of high level arrogance and incompetence.

ADMIRABLY BOLD. There's something grand about the film's sincerity and the intensity of its emotions and something fresh and bold about the way director Gray uses the conventions of romantic melodrama.