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Demonlover
Palm Pictures
FILM:
MPAA 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)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Olivier Assayas
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Olivier Assayas
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 16, 2004
Video: March 16, 2004
Theatrical: September 19, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
France |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English / French / Japanese (with English subtitles) |
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
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Olivier Assayas latest effort could be mistaken for a hipper-than-thou thriller. But it isn’t--it’s in fact a difficult, challenging, and troubling art film. [October 2003, p. 19]
100
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.
90
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.
88
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.
80
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
The entrancing visual imagery goes a long way toward filling in the screenplay's gaps in logic.
80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Disturbing, darkly beautiful.
80
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.
80
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."
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
This film will either drive you mad or make you angry, possibly both, if you’re lucky, but it’s rarely boring.
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
70
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.
70
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Nielsen beautifully embodies the sadness and confused sense of unreality that attend our appetite for the Internet's cheaper thrills.
70
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
However glitzy, clever, and luridly philosophical, Demonlover is still mainly an old-fashioned thriller.
70
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.
63
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.
60
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.
58
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.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
Well-scripted, well-acted and occasionally sexy, but just isn't all that interesting.
50
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.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Never quite jells into a coherent statement. Or a coherent film.
40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A visionary film with dramatic myopia.
40
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.
40
Empire
Alan Morrison
There's a Cronenbergian coldness to Olivier Assayas' corporate thriller.
30
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Meant to be a sleek, dark, disturbing David Cronenberg-style thriller, Olivier Assayas's film is just an annoying concoction.
30
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.
 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.
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Chad S. gave it a7:
