StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy Andrey Zvyagintsev's movie Leviathan (2014) is inspired by a true story that took place in the USA, the director however decided to shoot the movie in Russian in order to depict the conditions of Russians under a corrupt bureaucratic oligarchy. The movie suggests that the conditions of living under a corrupt leadership system isn't unique to one Nation and hence Leviathan intends to be a universal parable about a rigged and corrupt capitalist political system in our modern contemporary society.The title of the movie refers to Thomas Hobbes seminal work Leviathan, a political philosophy work about the nature of liberty and the nation-state. Hobbes argue in his work that there is a need for a sovereign power that should rule instead of humanity being in a state of nature. Since Human beings are political animals and that antagonism is inherent in them, then for stability and avoidance of anarchy they need to surrender their powers and right to a sovereign institution. As its evident in the movie, Hobbes didn't anticipated that the sovereign will be brutal and corrupt to this extent. Modernity's Sovereign institution- the nation state- is run by 'figures' that dwell in a state of Nature. The protagonist Kolya is a hotheaded and rude car mechanic. He lives with his second wife Lilya and a teenage son named Roma from his first marriage.Lilya is a depressed and trouble young beautiful woman and Roma loathe her totally. Lilya works in a fish factory where she cleans fish. This simple family living in a small town in the Barents Sea coast are haunted by the town mayor who is an ever drunk and corrupt. Vadim, the town mayor wants to evict the Kolyas from their land by a court order, and it is evident that the court is under Vadim's thumb. Dmitri, as sophisticated handsome lawyer from Moscow comes to help his former friend Kolya. The court rules against the Kolyas and as they report a trespassing case against the mayor, Kolya is arrested. While in jail Lilya and Dmitri have an impromptu sex in hotel and this leads to a crisis in the Kolya family. Kolya's calamities lead to catastrophes, Lilya commits suicide after he threatened her after her relationship with Dmitri. He is finally arrested and jailed. Roma the teenage boy is taken by a family friend. Finally we come to learn that Kolya's jailing was planned by the town mayor who demolishes their house and take the land. Leviathan is a tragic drama that beautifully pulls its viewers to contemplate the subjects of morality and justice in our modern present day. Kolya is a modern day Job- the figure from the old testament fable- who endures the brutality and trials of living under a corrupt judicial and political oligarchy. Kolya's world just like ours is a world governed by arrogant corrupt politician, smart lawyers and corrupt priests. A priest who looks like a character from Dostoyevski films advise Kolya to endure his trials and be patient like Job and submit his affairs to God. Kolya doesn't heed this advice and ends up being the bleached whale – Leviathan-that we see in the dried sea basins and the movie hence evokes both Hobbes Political tract and the old testament's Job.Parliamentary representative democracy failed. The working class is under the gaze of a corrupt politician and a bent judicial system. Modern democracy is hijacked by crony politicians who employ the state institutions to control dissenting voices from the public, Kolya is finally behind bars as we have seen. The judicial system and the prison are used as a control 'mechanism'. The church expects and instills into the public the conformity the state wants. Modernity with all its facets and institutions turned out to benefit the few ruling elites and the subjects of modernity virtually live in a controlled society. Leviathan is a critique of the social contract theory that emancipated an absolute sovereign power. Foundational principles like justice, equality and right to own property are no longer sustainable under a modern sovereign power without complying with their rules and needs, and those who dissent are then put under the mercy of a corrupt justice and emergency laws. The state, the Judiciary, the prisons and the church/mosque all cooperate the elites to consolidate power in their hands.

egasulla It would be easy to say that Leviathan is a cruel depiction of the current state of affairs in Russia, that long time enemy we love to hate. But what we see here -abuse of power, cruelty, greed- is sadly universal and would be equally in place in Rwanda, Bolivia or Iowa.What strikes us as foreign is the steady descent into bleakness -poor Kolya seems doomed from the start and indeed the events throughout the movie keeps dragging him deeper and deeper- as opposed to the magic twist into a happy ending, or at least a glimmer of hope, Hollywood style.Leviathan does not offer a solution to end with authoritarian tyrants, and that makes it a better movie. If a solution even exists, we the viewers need to think it over and come up with our own answers. Superheroes are pretty hard to find.

Lee Eisenberg Whether you relate it more to Marvin Heemeyer or the story of Job, Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Leviafan" ("Leviathan" in English) is an impressive piece of work. It's probably a commonplace story, with the officials in an ignored city doing everything possible to serve themselves. It's the sort of movie that feels like a kick in the gut. Although the title physically refers to the whale skeleton, it can abstractly refer to the state's clout.Although it's a long movie, it's still one that grips you. One gets the feeling that these people in these small towns see no future, and so they spend much of their time drinking. Along with this movie, I recommend "The Fool" ("Durak").

The_late_Buddy_Ryan "Leviathan" is a visually stunning and powerful film—maybe "overpowering" would be a better word, since w/d Andrei Zvyagintsev tends to make his political points with (spoiler alert?) all the subtlety of a backhoe bucket… The standoff between hard-drinking, two-fisted Kolya and Vadim—the local satrap who covets Kolya's little piece of land for a project of his own (we don't find out what it is till the final scene)—is involving and suspenseful. The tensions in Kolya's household—especially the disruptions caused by the handsome guest from Moscow—make for a fine, simmering subplot, but after these story lines collide (an event we have to imagine for ourselves, since we don't actually see it on screen), it's just one damn thing after another till the film's bleak conclusion. I can't blame AZ for giving us such a pummeling to drive his point home, given the current state of affairs in Putin's Russia—and it seems to be working for him, since few other Russian directors get much traction in the West—but I didn't really appreciate what an amazing film this is till I'd had a chance to walk it off for a while… (One critic predicts you'll "stumble out of the theater," which seems about right.) You may have heard "Leviathan" described as a remake of the Book of Job; it is, with the proviso that it's the Leviathan (Job 41) that's calling the shots now, not Yahweh. Maybe it's not surprising that the satirical jabs at the Church seem like they're right out of an old Soviet propaganda film—I particularly liked the scene where the parish priest tosses a loaf of bread to a couple of snuffling porkers in a pen, then tries to feed Kolya a very slanted synopsis of the biblical tale. (Job's life starts to turn around, says Father Nikolai, when he decides to stop complaining…)PS—Just read (03/21/16) in the NY Times that "Leviathan"'s spawned a minor tourist industry in the town where it was filmed. Visitors come to see the Northern Lights, take classes in something called "snowkiting" and see for themselves if life there is really as horrible as it seems to be in the film