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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Descent
EMAILPRINTCity Lights Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 10 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Talia Lugacy
Brian Priest
Directed by: Talia Lugacy
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 10, 2007
DVD: February 5, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING:
Starring Rosario Dawson, Chad Faust, Marcus Patrick, Christopher DeBlasio, Sergia Louise Anderson, and Chuck Ardezzone
A promising college student becomes bent on seeking revenge after a shocking act of violence is committed on her. Descent is a film that unnervingly tackles some of the country's most taboo subjects. (City Lights Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer 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...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It's been a while since we saw a demagogic feminist exploitation revenge drama, and Descent, while top-heavy with ''agenda,'' is shrewdly done.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's a lot like a '70s exploitation movie, with its determination to seduce and shock the viewer with alternating currents of electrical stimulus, and its weird combination of arty arch-decadence and neo-Victorian moralizing.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
Hard to watch but essential to see, Descent is at once realistic and rhetorical, and driven throughout by righteous anger that comes from an honest place.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ernest Hardy
A well-acted trifle straining to be a hard-hitting morality play.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Though a clearly gifted new filmmaker, Lugacy doesn't get a handle on the combustible material, and she gets scalded in the process.
Read Full Review >Variety John Anderson
Pic's message is the one thing that's made clear: A victim can sink lower than her predator. Whether receiving that message justifies the cost of watching Descent is another question.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
Depending on your revenge story preferences, the brutally pretentious Descent is either a payback flick with an agonizingly formless middle, or a soul-darkening head trip bracketed by a crude vengeance tale. Mostly, though, it's indie provocation trapped between shock and blah.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There is no excusing date rape, but the revenge conceived and executed by Rosario Dawson's Maya in this revolting, amateurish drama is something you might only wish on Osama Bin Laden.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Even worse than the hacky chick revenge fantasy now showing on channel 186 of your box.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a4:
French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said that "cinema history is the history of boys photographing girls." Where this filmmaker is coming from, one can only stare saucer-eyed with begrudging admiration, but the Godard quote isn't a bad place to start, as we watch Maya(Rosario Dawson) anally probe Jared(Chad Faust). Ready or not, the American cinema now has a sexual provocateur of its very own, a female filmmaker cut from the same mold as France's Catherine Breillat, whose fearless use of graphic sex may result in high-brow "adult" films such as "Romance" and "Fat Girl", rather than high-minded schlock like "Descent". First, the film puts us to sleep with its character-driven narrative, and then jars us awake by the unrepentant brutality of Maya's revenge plan. David Slade's "Hard Candy" makes the same mistake. When the tables are turned; the woman wins, but she loses the audience's sympathy. Arguably, even a pedophile, even a rapist, doesn't deserve to be tortured.
Robby T. gave it a2:
This movie feels like it was made by an amateur lesbian director who needs to ease up on the pills. See Hard Candy instead.
