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Demonlover
Palm Pictures


6.8

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, Chloë Sevigny, Gina Gershon, Jean-Baptiste Malartre, Dominique Reymond, Edwin Gerard, and Thomas M. Pollard

A thought-provoking, radical essay on the matrix of art, life and virtual reality which deliberately toys with narrative conventions. (Palm Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Olivier Assayas
DIRECTED BY:	Olivier Assayas
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 16, 2004 Video: March 16, 2004 Theatrical: September 19, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	English / French / Japanese (with English subtitles)

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

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Olivier Assayas latest effort could be mistaken for a hipper-than-thou thriller. But it isn’t--it’s in fact a difficult, challenging, and troubling art film. [October 2003, p. 19]

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

From the first voyeuristic peek into the ruthless world to the haunting, accusatory, unforgettable final image, it's a brilliant, stunning piece of work, perhaps not Assayas' best, but certainly his most fearless and impassioned.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Has a dreamy ominousness about it, and a sorrowfulness that speaks to the artificial intimacies of cellular communication, digital images and dial-up porn.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The entrancing visual imagery goes a long way toward filling in the screenplay's gaps in logic.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Disturbing, darkly beautiful.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It's a consistently exciting piece of moviemaking, but it's not a pleasant experience; it's one of the few recent movies that have the power to leave you genuinely shaken up.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's gripping and provocative, making effective use of Charles Berling and the music of Sonic Youth, though I wish it were a little less indebted to David Cronenberg's "Videodrome."

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

This film will either drive you mad or make you angry, possibly both, if you’re lucky, but it’s rarely boring.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Expect Demonlover to become a midnight-movie staple in the coming years. And expect shards of it to roil your dreams for weeks.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Assayas can't resist turning Demonlover into an overcalculatedly irrational rabbit-hole-to-the-dark-side thriller. The movie morphs into a ''dream,'' all right, but I confess that all I wanted to do was wake up from it and return to the slithery intrigue of corporate depravity.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Sharp, erotic performances are the mainstay of Olivier Assayas' unnerving Demonlover, a visually stylish movie that equates and fuses high-stakes corporate negotiations with the video-game mentality.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Unlike almost every other sexy modern thriller (especially most recent studio blockbusters), this one gives you a lot to think about.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

May be Assayas' airiest work to date, an intriguing trifle that leaves its considerable pleasures to lounge around on the surface.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Nielsen beautifully embodies the sadness and confused sense of unreality that attend our appetite for the Internet's cheaper thrills.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

However glitzy, clever, and luridly philosophical, Demonlover is still mainly an old-fashioned thriller.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Whatever else it may be, this movie is not like anything you've seen this year, and those weary of Hollywood norms owe it to themselves to seek it out.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

I've seen Demonlover twice and still find the plot a challenge. I'd try again if I thought it would help.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The harder you try to follow the narrative the more frustrating the film becomes, but its sleekly menacing images work their way into your brain like slivers of dry ice.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Manages to feel both obvious and oblique: You feel the need to watch it twice but wonder if you would actually be up for it. It moves like a breezy techno-thriller but tangles itself with duplicities and metaphors. You get it, and then you don't get it, and then you wonder if you even care.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Well-scripted, well-acted and occasionally sexy, but just isn't all that interesting.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

By the end of the movie, I frankly didn't give a damn. There's an ironic twist, but the movie hadn't paid for it and didn't deserve it. And I was struck by the complete lack of morality in Demonlover.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Never quite jells into a coherent statement. Or a coherent film.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A visionary film with dramatic myopia.

Film Threat Bob Westal

Demonlover would have probably been plane insufferable without Gina Gershon. All the other actors are doing an outstanding job of playing essentially dead souls, and it's a saving grace that Assayas allowed her, at least, to have some fun.

Empire Alan Morrison

There's a Cronenbergian coldness to Olivier Assayas' corporate thriller.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Meant to be a sleek, dark, disturbing David Cronenberg-style thriller, Olivier Assayas's film is just an annoying concoction.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Sure to turn off general viewers due to its emotional inaccessibility, multitude of narrative problems and preoccupation with a torture Web site.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Clint H. gave it a10:
A visually stunning french art-action film. Strange and obscure, but haunting and powerful. Loved the idea that theses people live in a place where reality is suspended, and they have no feelings or emotions, much like a videogame. It casts a spell you will never forget.

Chad S. gave it a7:
If the film is self-aware, a car chase, or any action element becomes arty. We see a bad Hollywood film with the requisite explosions on an in-flight film at the film's opening. When "demonlover" switches genre and becomes less talk-oriented, don't assume the film is being dumbed down for commercial purposes.

Dan B. gave it a 5:
Looks good and well acted n all, and individually the scenes are great but when it comes together it just doesn't make for very affecting stuff. Seems like it is trying to make some statements but gets lost in its own need to be vague or arty? Not sure. But it just doesn't gel into much.

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Demonlover Palm Pictures

Demonlover
Palm Pictures