Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Cowards Bend the Knee

EMAILPRINTZeitgeist Films

Cowards Bend the Knee reviews
82
4.8 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Guy Maddin

Directed by: Guy Maddin

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 11, 2004
DVD: September 20, 2005

Running Time: 60 minutes, B/W

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Darcy Fehr, Melissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Tara Birtwhistle, Louis Negin, Mike Bell, David Stuart Evans, and Henry Mogatas

A 10-part penny dreadful, a peepshow melodrama, loosely conceived around the filmmaker's autobiography, with an aesthetic that is one part "Vampire" serial, one part psycho fever-dream. (Film Forum)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

What's truly extraordinary about this movie--which strikes me on two viewings as Maddin's masterpiece--is that it not only plays like a dream but feels like one.

Read Full Review >
100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's said to be an autobiography, but that pertains only in the loosest sense. It's a comedy. It's a 1920s silent movie. It is practically indescribable. And it is pure genius.

Read Full Review >
100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

There's a new visual idea every second, each teeming with energy, pitch-dark comedy, and inspired cinematic lunacy.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

There is also something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past. What makes all this nostalgia for a movie history that never happened is that, as is always the case with Mr. Maddin's work, it's executed with more love than irony and not a whit of derision.

Read Full Review >
80

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Abortion, incest, infidelity, revenge, and hockey collide at a fever pitch, juxtaposed with such frantic energy that they're pushed to the level of high comedy, funniest at its most dramatic.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Ultimately, psychotically inventive pic is a formidable addition to the ever-evolving Maddin oeuvre.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

The results are always visually arresting, while the narrative, even by Maddin standards, is completely out in the ozone.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

Oddly, once removed from the museum setting and strung together into an hourlong feature, it's Maddin's most cohesive narrative.

Read Full Review >
67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

If you're a fan of Maddin's expressionist style, you'll find the humor within. Everyone else will be scratching their heads, despite Maddin's extraordinary visual imagination.

Read Full Review >
60

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The overall feel is phantasmagoric--pitched, like most of Maddin's work, in the style of a half-remembered late silent feature or early talkie.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chris B gave it a0:
Maybe the critics from the Village Voice, New York Daily News, etc. find "Cowards Bend the Knee" new and interesting, but as a former Toronto art school student let me assure you it isn't. Every student art film in Toronto is a combination of two or more of the ingredients that Maddin uses; grainy black and white film stock, unnecessary nudity, emotionally uncomfortable scenes, and stilted acting. Just because it's boring and uncomfortable doesn't make it good.

John D. gave it a4:
I clearly agree that the director is quite talented and his talent for handling images shows. However, after about 10 minutes I was bored and stayed that way for the full hour. It was a long hour. I just can't recommend this to anyone.

Triko D. gave it a0:
This is exactly what I've known all along. The movie critics are actually theater critics who sleep with William Shakespeare under the pillow. Those critics who somehow made this movie to get over 80points don't really know why they're movie critics and out of bitterness try to fool everyone by giving a crack-addicts picasso-rape good points. Just because "simpletons" can't argue with critics-higher knowledge. They naturally know art where they see it. From here on out, I'll just read the "amateur" comments since they're obviously more realibable than a critic lying to pay his rent.

John S gave it a10:
If you are looking for mainstream mindless formulaic predicable and familiar, don't rent this movie. It is a true piece of original art. It is hyponotic and brilliniant, and even profound in points. But mostly its a fun experiment that works on all levels. I liked it more than "Saddest Music" too. But these movies should come with warnings. "If you are really concrete minded, you should rent something else. Stick to mainstream Hollywood products."

[Anonymous] gave it a5:
I can honestly understand people hating this film. But I will only refund 1 hour of life per viewer... considering that is how long the movie is.

John K. gave it a0:
Pretentious rubbish. I agree with Lisa although I didn't wait for the end.

Lisa M gave it a 0:
I want the two hours of my life back.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use