1. It's strong work that's not always satisfying, but its silent power registers as intended, creating a hypnotic atmosphere of unrest that fuels several sensational scenes and a decidedly unsettling conclusion.
2. From its chamber-piece delicacy and bureaucratic detail to a grandeur and implacable pessimism that seem as ancient as the land itself, "Leviathan" is a distinctly Russian tragedy.
3. Zvyagintsev builds to a crescendo with the force of an ocean storm..."Leviathan" is a great, literary work of existential despair, as magnificent as its titular creature.
4. The film you expect it to be by the one-fifth mark is pretty much exactly the film it proves to be. But it's a stellar execution of that movie.
5. This is a portrait of people living under constant duress, trying to drown their sorrows in a bottle and sometimes behaving in misguided ways that will free them, if only temporarily, from their grim reality.
6. Enormously captivating, a study of oppression, human nature and the effect of the two things upon each other.
7. As harshly beautiful as the Barents Sea coastline where it is set, this parable inspired in part by the biblical tale of Job dumps more misfortune than one hapless man should ever have to endure.
8. Andrey Zvyagintsev's Oscar-nominated and vodka-soaked satire of modern Russia, which plays more like tragedy.
9. It's early in the year, but I suspect it's still not a stretch to say that the geography in Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan are some of the most quietly evocative landscapes of the year.
10. Call it what you like - a modern Russian epic, a crime drama, a black comedy or a scream in the dark - Leviathan is a shaggy masterpiece.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?
Leviathan lives up to its title, offering trenchant, well-crafted social satire on a suitably grand scale.