Bastards
Bastards Image
Metascore
63

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critics What's this?

until movie release
  • Summary: Bastards follows Marco Silvestri, a captain on a container-ship who is called urgently back to Paris by his desperate sister Sandra. Sandra’s husband has committed suicide, the family business has gone under, her daughter has gone adrift, and she holds powerful businessman Edouard Laporte reresponsible. Determined to exact a terrible revenge for the violence done to his family, Marco moves into the building where Laporte’s mistress Raphaelle lives; but he can’t avoid Sandra’s secret manipulations or the fact that he is falling in love with Raphaelle. [IFC Films]… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Jesse Cataldo
    Oct 8, 2013
    88
    Conditioning the audience to find dread in every seemingly innocent gesture, the film turns even the simplest touch between family members into something tinged with menace.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    Aug 22, 2013
    80
    Even at its most opaque, Bastards always exerts a dreamlike pull rooted in Denis’ rhythmic layerings of image, sound and music.
  3. The Playlist
    Reviewed by: Jessica Kiang
    May 25, 2013
    67
    The Bastards feels like what happens when an undeniably great filmmaker stoops to sensationalism -- it’s a smarter, odder film than someone else would make with the same material, but it’s still smart, odd sensationalism.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    May 25, 2013
    60
    A stylishly made but unyielding drama.
  5. indieWIRE
    Reviewed by: Eric Kohn
    May 25, 2013
    50
    Bogged down by flashbacks and flash forwards, "The Bastards" pointlessly mixes up its ingredients, creating a distancing effect from the tangible sadness at its core. The result is the rare case of a movie that confirms its maker's skill while wasting it on useless ambition.
  6. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Peter Bradshaw
    May 25, 2013
    40
    Denis's drama intrigues more than it actually delivers...Sleight of hand is all well and good. But sooner or later a film must pay up.

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