Last year our reviewer, Christopher Benfey, called this a "sturdy and well-informed" portrait.
Last year our reviewer, Barbara Crossette, called this a "powerful portrait of a suffering nation" by a "writer of uncommon elegance and sensitivity."
It does not seem to be clear if this painting should be called a portrait or a genre work.
The film has been called a "bewitching portrait of a child's haunted inner life".
I would call it a perfected portrait of late 20th-century hypocrisy.
The piece has also been called a "hauntingly vivid psychological portrait" that conjures "sensations of abandonment, agitation, grief and reconciliation."
Jang called the piece a "musical portrait" of Yu's experience as an activist in the late-1930s.
Neither of these plays is exactly what you would call a flattering portrait.
Ned Vizzini, for the New York Times, calls it "different", "a grittily realistic portrait of sexual violence in high school."
Last year in the Book Review, Kevin Baker called this a "spellbinding" portrait with a "nearly tragic sweep."