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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Demonlover

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Olivier Assayas
Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 19, 2003
DVD: March 16, 2004
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): English / French / Japanese (with English subtitles)
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Clean Les Destinées
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
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...
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Olivier Assayas latest effort could be mistaken for a hipper-than-thou thriller. But it isnt--its in fact a difficult, challenging, and troubling art film. [October 2003, p. 19]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The entrancing visual imagery goes a long way toward filling in the screenplay's gaps in logic.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
This film will either drive you mad or make you angry, possibly both, if youre lucky, but its rarely boring.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Nielsen beautifully embodies the sadness and confused sense of unreality that attend our appetite for the Internet's cheaper thrills.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
However glitzy, clever, and luridly philosophical, Demonlover is still mainly an old-fashioned thriller.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Well-scripted, well-acted and occasionally sexy, but just isn't all that interesting.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Never quite jells into a coherent statement. Or a coherent film.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Empire Alan Morrison
There's a Cronenbergian coldness to Olivier Assayas' corporate thriller.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Meant to be a sleek, dark, disturbing David Cronenberg-style thriller, Olivier Assayas's film is just an annoying concoction.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
