- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
100Kaufman's startling Quills gives us an anatomy of fear, images both silken swift and molten hot, scenes that disrupt and inflame the imagination.
-
90It's an unapologetic dazzler, which is why it's never overwhelmed by its themes.
-
90A savage comedy of sexual extremes; the barbed laughs draw blood.
-
90Profane, sacrilegious, pornographic, sadistic and Sade-istic, titillating and the most honorable movie of the year.
-
88Finds a tone that remains more entertaining than depressing, more absorbing than alarming.
-
88This playful, immensely entertaining movie knows that art is in the eye of the beholder.
-
88Uniformly robust acting puts still more feathers in the caps of Rush, Winslet and Caine.
-
88A witty yet fiery and, in the best sense, provocative play of ideas about freedom of expression.
-
80A literate, dialogue-driven treat delivered by a cast that truly savors the script's wicked wit.
-
80Remarkable energy and wit, and is probably the most purely enjoyable entry in Kaufman's suboeuvre of literary excursions.
-
80Kaufman's earnestly overblown celebration of the Marquis de Sade.
-
80The dialogue is sparkingly witty, and Phoenix and Winslet are excellent in what are, after all, meant to be fairly one-dimensional roles.
-
80Occasionally 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.
-
80What the film does have is coruscating anger, impish wit, and a breathtaking style.
-
80Ridiculous enough to be hilarious, but this didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Philip Kaufman's silly romp.
-
75The things you can look forward to, however, are the humor, intellectual musing, emotional tumult, superb acting and challenging adult questions.
-
75Rush is amazing throughout this absorbing, provocative film.
-
70Quills -- 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.
-
70Ultimately, Quills descends into overwrought melodrama. But at its bright and bawdy best, it bubbles with subversive wit.
-
70Lacks an edge of danger or excitement that might have brought the subject alive in more than a cerebral way.
-
70Rush is too sinfully good for the drama he's in.
-
67A stunningly impassioned and articulate study of a writer's life and the censorial demons that can strangle that voice.
-
67Quills bleaches the danger -- and fascination -- out of De Sade, turning him into a kind of mad saint of ''Masterpiece Theatre'' porn.
-
63It's a work that preaches to the choir, and the song has been more subtly sung in better movies.
-
60Censorship, madness, social rebellion and the power of art.
-
60Quills is bound to titillate some, but for most it's likely to summon little more than a few Oscars and appreciative yawns.
-
50The 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.
-
50One 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.
-
30This is soft-gore porn, obvious in its strategies, witless in the play of its ideas, absurdist only in its pretense to seriousness.
-
25Resembles a period version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - played dead straight.
-
20Soon becomes a sadistic experience in its own right. Experiencing this pretentious wallow -- overwritten, under-thought and overdone -- is a very sophisticated form of torture.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 13 out of 16
-
Mixed: 1 out of 16
-
Negative: 2 out of 16
-
8
-
JayH.6
-
shehex10