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
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Quills

EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Quills reviews
70
7.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Doug Wright (also play)

Directed by: Philip Kaufman

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 22, 2000
DVD: May 8, 2001

Running Time: 123 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for strong sexual content including dialogue, violence and language

Starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, and Michael Caine

Quills boldly enters the debate surrounding the Marquis De Sade by imagining his final days as a blistering black comedy thriller, a battle between lust and love - and between the brutality of censorship and the unpredictable consequences of free expression. (Fox Searchlight)

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

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Kaufman's startling Quills gives us an anatomy of fear, images both silken swift and molten hot, scenes that disrupt and inflame the imagination.

Read Full Review >
90

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A savage comedy of sexual extremes; the barbed laughs draw blood.

90

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Profane, sacrilegious, pornographic, sadistic and Sade-istic, titillating and the most honorable movie of the year.

Read Full Review >
90

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's an unapologetic dazzler, which is why it's never overwhelmed by its themes.

Read Full Review >
88

USA Today Mike Clark

Uniformly robust acting puts still more feathers in the caps of Rush, Winslet and Caine.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A witty yet fiery and, in the best sense, provocative play of ideas about freedom of expression.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Finds a tone that remains more entertaining than depressing, more absorbing than alarming.

Read Full Review >
88

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This playful, immensely entertaining movie knows that art is in the eye of the beholder.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly John Patterson

Remarkable energy and wit, and is probably the most purely enjoyable entry in Kaufman's suboeuvre of literary excursions.

Read Full Review >
80

Film.com Peter Brunette

The dialogue is sparkingly witty, and Phoenix and Winslet are excellent in what are, after all, meant to be fairly one-dimensional roles.

Read Full Review >
80

Slate David Edelstein

What the film does have is coruscating anger, impish wit, and a breathtaking style.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Occasionally becomes pretentious and shrill -- sometimes Mr. Wright isn't aware that his material is so good that he doesn't need to comment on his characters.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Kaufman's earnestly overblown celebration of the Marquis de Sade.

Read Full Review >
80

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A literate, dialogue-driven treat delivered by a cast that truly savors the script's wicked wit.

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Ridiculous enough to be hilarious, but this didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Philip Kaufman's silly romp.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The things you can look forward to, however, are the humor, intellectual musing, emotional tumult, superb acting and challenging adult questions.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Rush is amazing throughout this absorbing, provocative film.

Read Full Review >
70

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Rush is too sinfully good for the drama he's in.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Todd McCarthy

Lacks an edge of danger or excitement that might have brought the subject alive in more than a cerebral way.

Read Full Review >
70

Newsweek David Ansen

Ultimately, Quills descends into overwrought melodrama. But at its bright and bawdy best, it bubbles with subversive wit.

Read Full Review >
70

Film.com Gemma Files

Quills -- like the Marquis himself--is a posey, pungent, ultra-theatrical yet weirdly seductive mess which wants to have its cake, eat it too and discuss the whole concept and context of its meal (constantly, contradictorily) while it does so.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A stunningly impassioned and articulate study of a writer's life and the censorial demons that can strangle that voice.

Read Full Review >
67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Quills bleaches the danger -- and fascination -- out of De Sade, turning him into a kind of mad saint of ''Masterpiece Theatre'' porn.

Read Full Review >
63

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

It's a work that preaches to the choir, and the song has been more subtly sung in better movies.

Read Full Review >
60

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Quills is bound to titillate some, but for most it's likely to summon little more than a few Oscars and appreciative yawns.

Read Full Review >
60

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Censorship, madness, social rebellion and the power of art.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The acting is passionate, but the film would be more effective if it presented a more thoroughgoing lesson in the raging horrors that swept through European culture during the era of the French Revolution.

Read Full Review >
50

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

One gets the feeling Kaufman was so intent on putting fury and fanaticism on-screen, he forgot about having it serve any greater purpose. Which makes Quills the film equivalent of one of de Sade's novels: artifice, without art.

Read Full Review >
30

Time Richard Schickel

This is soft-gore porn, obvious in its strategies, witless in the play of its ideas, absurdist only in its pretense to seriousness.

Read Full Review >
25

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Resembles a period version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - played dead straight.

Read Full Review >
20

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Soon becomes a sadistic experience in its own right. Experiencing this pretentious wallow -- overwritten, under-thought and overdone -- is a very sophisticated form of torture.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes

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

Jay H. gave it a6:
Exquisitely produced, excellent acting by all, especially Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix and Kate Winslet. The costumes and sets are outstanding. However, I found it very talky and often tedious and I was downright bored at times. Yak yak yak yak.

she hex gave it a10:
Well now...sublime. Magnifique. I absolutely love Geoffrey Rush and I must say that his role as the Marquis de Sade was performed exceptionally. My favourite part of the movie is , you know...that intimate encounter between the late Maddy and the youn priest.Call me kinky, but I dare say that this movie fits perfectly not only the mind of those evolved in a different manner, sexually speaking, but it evoques sexuality in such a manner that it fits each and every living thing on earth.

S Marjones gave it a4:
*yawn* Thinks it's more important than it is. Why does every “period/historical piece” coming out of Hollywood have actors speaking with English accents? This took place in -hello- France during the age of Enlightenment. It's like casting Eminem to play Malcolm X - you miss the subtleties of the culture in question by being so consistently Anglo-centric. They do the same with ancient Roman films - can't they at least cast prominent Italian-American actors like De Niro and Pacino?!? As if Americans are too stupid to associate European culture with anything other than the British. It colored my whole view of the film, negating anything positive about the performances. Would it truly be that risky if they accurately portrayed the culture and character of the times? Kate Winslet with a Cockney accent – ooooh! I’m so impressed. *spit*.

Gabor A. gave it a9:
Perfect up until the overdone ending. But literally perfect to that point.

Eric S. gave it a 9:
A disturbing vision of the dark side of self-expression. Intentionally sensationalized and deliberately off-color, it ventures to the very edge of the R rating. In doing so, it achieves an anarchy typical of all great indie films.

Wibble gave it a 9:
It may not make a profound statement but i can think of worse ways to spend my time... geoffrey rush is fab in this..

Allan F. gave it an 8:
Witty, sexy, and entertaining!

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 (UPDATED) | Terms of Use