The Kid with a Bike

Per usual, the Dardennes introduce a conflict and jump right in, with subsequent details gradually illuminating the narrative.

The Dardennes create tension out of human drama and draw believable, excellent performances from their entire cast.

The directing by the Dardenne brothers reflects their previous work: it wants to be unnoticed either for virtuosity or clumsiness, yet only virtuos...

An edge-of-your-seat emotional roller-coaster ride about ordinary people in a nondescript neighborhood, it’s sometimes terrifying, often...

What’s never in doubt is the sharpness and concision of the storytelling. Not a shot seems unnecessary.

It’s minor, but powerfully so.

Compassionate, humane but never sentimental.

How the Dardennes, time and again, turn gritty, mundane subjects into transcendent moments of honesty and truth is one of the great cinematic wonders.

Intriguing, exciting, amusing, moving – and with a strong message about the way society treats the people at the bottom of the heap.

The Kid With A Bike feels like a companion piece to Rosetta, though it’s far less severe and more open-hearted, even borderline sentimen...

Young Thomas Doret fills the role with natural sincerity and focus, and not a second that seems contrived.

The film is not just in the tradition of Pinocchio and A.I.: It is a worthy successor.

The simple act of its being seems enough to constitute a kind of perfection.

The Kid With a Bike grabs at the heart.

You wouldn’t exactly call The Kid With a Bike a feel-good movie, but by the end it certainly invites the viewer to be hopeful about huma...

There is not a wasted shot in this stripped down, pared back fable. Yet, it accrues a deep and lasting power. You won’t see many be...

I remain in awe of the Dardennes' willingness to commit wholeheartedly to dislikable protagonists – Cyril is a sullen, selfish, almost ma...

Not much happens in The Kid with a Bike, but it leaves you grateful that the worst doesn’t happen – with these characters, you migh...

With customary restraint, the Dardenne brothers have added yet another exquisite entry to their masterful body of work.

Makes a powerful statement about the plight of unwanted children. But it also incorporates elements of melodrama, film noir, and even the fair...

Without diminishing the boy’s intensity or making him in any way ingratiating, the Dardennes take us into his mind, and we begin to appreciat...

There are flaws, and yet the Dardennes' tough, spare, almost haunted storytelling style was much in evidence.

As is usual in their films, the Dardennes remain both deeply interested and carefully objective. The photography and editing are unfussy and unhurr...

Within its tight 87 minutes, not a lot happens, unless you count the saving of a life.

The Dardennes' latest is one of their best, a memorable cinematic portrait of troubled youth and soul-saving charity.