ONE OF THE YEAR'S TOP TEN FILMS — Set in a desiccated Las Vegas, Menkes’s entrancing 1991 film, recently restored, situates its anomic protagonist in a series of unforgettably barren (whether topographically or psychically) tableaux—a bleakness punctuated by impeccably timed offhand humor.”
— Melissa Anderson, Artforum
One of the most provocative and challenging artists in film today. Taxing, shimmering, hypnotic, Queen of Diamonds demands being seen more than once to fully absorb its beauty and meaning.”
— Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
No matter how much of the unconscious, or of the subconscious, is injected into the movie’s images and sound, nothing here is aestheticized. This is not a 'dreamy' film. Its moments of disconnect from 'ordinary' reality, as when a character holds up a hand to show a long set of fresh and spiky-looking sutures on her wrist, are meant to provoke — specifically, in a way that’s anticapitalist and feminist. Even at a terse 76 minutes, 'Queen of Diamonds' is not an easy film. But it’s an essential one."
— Glenn Kenny, The New York Times, Critic’s Pick
An utterly unique movie that has to be seen to be believed.”
— Anna Biller, Talk House
Menkes’s movie, Queen of Diamonds, recently restored in 4K resolution by the Academy Film Archive and the Film Foundation, shares not only the formal sophistication and structural rigor of Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) and Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman (1975) but also their themes: female alienation and the ways that passivity, muteness, and a refusal to engage can serve as forms of resistance to patriarchal oppression. Ironically, these same themes helped to eclipse the three works—and many others like them—for too long."
— Sarah Resnick, 4Column
