This is taut, engrossing filmmaking on a crucial subject.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2020

Mr. Legrand is skilled in the techniques of dread and suspense, and without sensationalizing or cheapening the story, he gives this closely observed drama the tension and urgency of a thriller.

Full Review | Apr 17, 2019

Custody makes gripping drama from a difficult subject.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 27, 2018

The events that unfold in this brilliant and troubling movie are all too real.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 21, 2018

A peerless fusing of dumbshow performance and background sound editing, there's a rising panic that allows the final, violent closing act to seem shockingly organic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 2, 2018

Legrand in his feature debut shows laudable technical ability and discipline.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 26, 2018

As in all good movies of this kind, the ordeal of the children is not skimped. They bear the brunt, and the legacy, of the anguish.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 20, 2018

Legrand... seems precociously adept at turning the screws of suspense...

Full Review | Jul 16, 2018

Xavier Legrand's flawless feature debut morphs into a meticulously premeditated nightmare in its final act.

Full Review | Jul 13, 2018

"Custody" can be difficult, even wrenching to watch, but it always plays fair with the audience, and the experience, worth every minute expended, is impossible to forget.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2018

We've all seen these sorts of domestic bogeymen before in any number of Lifetime movies. But rarely are they presented with the matter-of-fact naturalism that Legrand brings to his Venice Silver Lion winner.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 7, 2018

Less nuanced than some of its predecessors but far more stressful, it isn't an easy watch -- nor is it meant to be.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 29, 2018

Emotionally bruising but not without some glimmer of hope.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 29, 2018

Did I mention this movie isn't for the weakhearted?

Full Review | Jun 29, 2018

It's a curious dichotomy that impresses on a directorial level even as it hedges on a psychological one.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2018

Custody is concerned with the failure of process to discern human need and perversion, and Xavier Legrand rather ironically follows in the footsteps of bureaucracy by reducing people to statistics.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 22, 2018

Buried amid a week of non-inspiring film releases, this French gem is well worth ferreting out.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 11, 2018

It's well acted (not least by Thomas Gioria as the child), but unenlightening.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2018

For all its stripped-bare economy and unsentimentality, this is one of the most emotionally devastating cinema experiences of the past year.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 15, 2018

Human beings aren't always straight with each other. With thrilling skill, Legrand and his team find a crooked path to clarity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 14, 2018