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Review: The Patron Saints

“Subject matter combined with a fly-on-the-wall vantage point makes this one of the few films where voyeurism feels like being a spirit drifting between rooms, observing patients awaiting death. It’s like Emily Dickinson’s version of Enter the Void (2009), and perhaps you’ll think of her words about death and how he kindly stops for us, as we gaze out the back of an ambulance carrying away a corpse, while the desolate trees fly by in the sky and we fade to black.”

Nicholas Bell

Published on September 14, 2011

The Patron Saints

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“Subject matter combined with a fly-on-the-wall vantage point makes this one of the few films where voyeurism feels like being a spirit drifting between rooms, observing patients awaiting death. It’s like Emily Dickinson’s version of Enter the Void (2009), and perhaps you’ll think of her words about death and how he kindly stops for us, as we gaze out the back of an ambulance carrying away a corpse, while the desolate trees fly by in the sky and we fade to black.”

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Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.