Descent

Name: Descent
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: August 10, 2007
Duration: 101 min
Rating: 45
Cast: Rosario Dawson

2007

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

See All

6.5

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.5	Your Score
6.5	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Descent

Now Playing: Descent

Movie Details & Credits

City Lights Pictures | Release Date: August 10, 2007 | NC-17

Starring: Rosario Dawson

Summary: 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)

Director: Talia Lugacy

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller

Rating: NC-17

Runtime: 101 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

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

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

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

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

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

Too elliptical to be convincing. Read full review

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

Kyle Smith

Even worse than the hacky chick revenge fantasy now showing on channel 186 of your box. Read full review

SEE ALL 10 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

ChadS.

Feb 14, 2008

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 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

RobbyT.

Feb 6, 2008

This movie feels like it was made by an amateur lesbian director who needs to ease up on the pills. See Hard Candy instead.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

SEE ALL 2 REVIEWS