| 100 |
Portland Oregonian
A masterfully varied set of images, paces and moods.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Brilliant and heartbreaking, takes place in the present but is timeless.
|
| 89 |
Austin Chronicle
Sellbinding, distressing, and possessed of a dark and terrible beauty.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
In all respects, from choice of material to fullness of execution on every level, The War Zone is an extraordinary piece of work.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
Showing as much courage and talent behind the camera as he has while acting in front of it, Roth has crafted for his first film one of the most bluntly graphic and disturbing movies ever done on the subject.
|
| 80 |
TV Guide
Actor Tim Roth's austere directing debut is one of the most difficult, emotionally wrenching experiences you're likely to have in a movie theater any time soon.
|
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Roth, there's no denying, creates considerable suspense out of our desire to confront the forbidden.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
One of the most impressive actor-to-filmmaker transitions in recent years.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sticks in the mind and simply won't go away.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Grim, tight and well acted.
|
| 70 |
Dallas Observer
A bleak, beautiful film.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
We may not want another film about incest, but there's a necessity about this one that won't be denied.
|
| 68 |
Mr. Showbiz
A brooding, stunningly realistic portrait of familial self-destruction that raises far more questions than it can possibly answer.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
A relentlessly grim, rather heavy-handed drama of family dysfunction.
|
| 63 |
San Francisco Examiner
Roth, though, is like a sociopathic arsonist, one enthralled with his ability to start little blazes and one who would even call the fire department, but wouldn't stick around to see whether anyone put them out.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Janet Maslin
The actor Tim Roth makes a fierce, disturbing directorial debut with a film that treats incest as something worse than a terrible secret.
|
| 50 |
Film.com
Moira Macdonald
Its grimness is so unrelenting that I can only recommend it to filmgoers who need a movie to tell them that incest is bad.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
Roth can obviously direct actors sympathetically, and he paces the movie adroitly.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Eric Harrison
Much of its strength resides in the way it eschews narrative contrivance. The movie observes behavior without explaining or judging it.
|
| 40 |
Film.com
Wrought with pretension -- and a blind eye to its own exploitation.
|
| 40 |
Chicago Reader
The ultimately uncomplicated view of sexual and emotional violence in a family is only tragic, not insightful.
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