As I Lay Dying 2013

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: In many respects this is a faithful and intelligent synopsis of the book. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I don't pretend to have a clue how to adapt William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" for the screen, but unlike James Franco, I, at least, didn't try. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Franco offers up a competently acted, technically adequate Cliff Notes take on Faulkner's narratively refracted tale of dirt-poor Mississippi folk in mourning. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Like Franco's other directorial efforts, it ends up coming across as an academic art object, somewhere halfway between a graduate thesis and a video installation-interesting, but only in context. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A startlingly effective adaptation of William Faulkner's challenging novel by James Franco. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It remains to be seen whether James Franco can live up to his outsized ambitions. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: As a whole ... "As I Lay Dying" conveys some of Faulkner's themes, and the details of the Bundren family story, with clarity and concision. Read more

Catherine Bray, Time Out: Faulkner fans... need not be up in arms about this version of his Nobel Prize winner. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: The past may never be done with us, but Lord, do we wish Franco was done with our literary heritage. Read more

Chris Packham, Village Voice: Franco adapted a book that often reads like joyless homework into a film that feels the same way. Read more