Killing Them Softly
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: November 30, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
17
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanNov 28, 2012
Killing them Softly is a lurid and nasty little nihilistic hitman noir, with an ingenuity that sneaks up on you. Read full review
100
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 3, 2012
Uncompromising and uncommercial, divisive and brave, Killing Them Softly bitterly boils at the state of the nation. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 3, 2012
This is an unrepentantly cynical take on the hope-and-change promised to the US in 2008; this year's election race makes it look even bleaker, an icily confident black comedy of continued disillusion. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 3, 2012
The film is terribly smart in every respect, with ne'er-a-false note performances and superb craft work from top to bottom. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 29, 2012
Jolting, suspenseful, full of twisted sympathy for its goons' row of characters, and wickedly amusing to boot, Killing Them Softly summons up the ghosts of "Goodfellas" and a whole nasty tradition of crime pics. And then it lets its ghosts go, whacking and thwacking away. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 29, 2012
A bleakly comic, brutally Darwinian gangland saga that at times comes close to being this year's "Drive." It also does something that, if you're from around these parts, seems downright perverse. It takes the Boston out of George V. Higgins. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 29, 2012
Even some who generally enjoy gangster films may be turned off by this one, with its focus on dialogue over action and its harsh style. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 30, 2012
The dialogue is sharp and so are the performances. Andrew Dominik directed this neo-noir in a low-key comic style that's alternately gritty and fancy. The gritty stuff is best. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnNov 29, 2012
The movie isn't political so much as philosophical, trashing the notion of the American dream as anything more than fodder for an endless rat race. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 28, 2012
For a genre film, Killing Them Softly goes to an awfully strange, none-too-subtle place, but the choice to move the '08 election from background to overlay is unusually bold and thought-provoking, too. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 30, 2012
This is a deliberately chilly and nerve-wracking experience, and one of the bleakest portraits of American society seen on-screen in the last several decades. Read full review
80
NPRStephanie ZacharekNov 29, 2012
Killing Them Softly has more unruly energy, and less art-house pretension, than "The Assassination of Jesse James." Its disreputability does come with a faintly arty sheen sprayed on - the picture could be a little grubbier, but let's not split hairs, especially such nice, greasy ones. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 29, 2012
Brad Pitt is in ecstasy here, despite the cool demeanor throughout. This is an actor who is never better and never happier than when he gets to be seedy, slick his hair back and wear a leather jacket. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 29, 2012
There's nothing touchy-feely about Killing Them Softly, a stylish thriller worth seeing -- despite its relentless violence -- for its sharp dialogue, mesmerizing photography and gritty performances. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 29, 2012
Killing Them Softly isn't anything major. But it's a pungent minor film only vaguely resembling the one The Weinstein Co. is advertising, and that's fine with me. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 29, 2012
Murder is just another day at the office for corporate America, and the film hammers that theme home with diminishing returns. But the acting is aces, especially Pitt mixing it up with the superb James Gandolfini. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreNov 29, 2012
If gangsterism is just capitalism in a more raw form, then Jackie is the creature best suited for this world. He knows the rules and enforces them without prejudice, because it's just business and this is just a job. Killing Them Softly doesn't give that idea its intended sting. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 26, 2012
He's [Pitt] not particularly inventive - with his appraising eyes and a toothpick in his mouth, he's like Redford without the edge - but he uses his stardom cannily, to kill with softness. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerOct 24, 2012
Killing Them Softly tries hard - and succeeds - to be a film of the now with its political parallels right in front of us. Yet it's also an invisible companion to the dirty business at hand - and it is a business. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangSep 3, 2012
A routine, even mundane crime story relayed in tones of world-weary fatigue, Killing Them Softly deglams the mob movie to coolly distinctive if rarely pulse-quickening effect. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 28, 2012
Nobody dies softly here; they're mutilated, splattered in blood and vomit, set up by people who'll get theirs soon. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 29, 2012
A stylish, brutal affair that delivers grim atmosphere and punishing violence but loses impact in telegraphing its political punches. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 29, 2012
Like the politicians it tries to pull into the big picture, Killing Them Softly promises more than it delivers. Read full review
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