Nymphomaniac 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: Lars von Trier is funny. Who knew? That's certainly the most startling revelation to come from Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 . Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Nymphomaniac is convincing as a work of philosophical seriousness. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Von Trier has made some wonderful movies ("Breaking the Waves,'' "Melancholia'') but this pretentious snoozer, like "Antichrist," isn't one of them. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie commits the sin of boredom, partly because Ms. Martin is exceedingly inexpressive ... Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Thurman is the one blast of the life force in this handsome, sometimes funny, oddly remote film. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Racy subject aside, the film provides a good-humored yet serious-minded look at sexual self-liberation, thick with references to art, music, religion and literature ... Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A ferociously entertaining experience in which one finds von Trier at the peak of his craft, linking together ideas about female sexuality, fly-fishing and artistic creation with equal amounts of playfulness and intellectual rigor. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: For those willing to go along with von Trier's typically in-your-face tactics, it's a good, if uncomfortable (and surprisingly funny), film. And the discomfort is part of what von Trier is after. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What's most disquieting about "Nymph()maniac" is how funny, tender, thoughtful, and truthful it is, even as it pushes into genuinely seamy aspects of onscreen sexuality. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: I found this compelling, and I'm eager to see what will transpire at the... well, I guess the word would be climax. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: If it weren't for the explicit sexual encounters, this could be an Ibsen or a Strindberg play, unclothed and unmoored from the late 19th or early 20th century. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "Nymphomaniac: Vol I" is crazy. It's funny, it's lewd, it's disturbing, it's odd, it's extremely graphic, it's brutal. And if you can handle all that, it's pretty good. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: It's both exhausting and laughable in its eagerness to shock. That's the bad news. The worse news is that Volume II comes out next month. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: "Nymphomaniac Vol. 1″ is the worst thing Lars Von Trier has ever associated himself with. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: This smorgasbord of talk and sex constitutes a very full meal. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: It provides, perhaps like the experiences of love and sex, a shifting variety of insights, emotions, unexpected lightness and moments of visceral shock. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Factually, it's safe to assume most audiences will learn more about fly fishing than fucking. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Think of Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 as the first half of a longer tale which, if von Trier has taught us anything, will grow infinitely darker and more harrowing. Read more

Eric Sasson, The New Republic: I suspect that von Trier, like many of his European counterparts, views American sexual mores as fairly puritanical. And yet there's something awfully retrograde about a film which offers us a nymphomaniac only to have a man defend her. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Highly explicit, but more intellectual than erotic. Music, math and sex make an intriguing jumble of ideas, though coherence may not appear until "Volume II." Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: A pornographic work of art-obsessive, repetitive, at times remarkably eccentric, but never simple-minded or dull. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: One of [Von Trier's] most sympathetic films since "Dancer in the Dark." Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: The most shocking thing about the film is that it often prompts laughs. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The film makes an analogy between sex and fly-fishing - and fly-fishing comes off as more intriguing. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: You're unlikely to turn away. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Nymphomaniac: Vol. I is intimate, in-your-face, and, mostly, enjoyably ridiculous. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Nymphomaniac Volume I is possibly the best movie Lars von Trier has made since Dancer in the Dark. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Uma Thurman is sensational, stealing the movie in a moment that cuts to the core of Von Trier's mixed feelings about female power. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Lars von Trier has buffaloed all of us once again with one of the strangest and least summarizable motion pictures ever made: tragic and hilarious, tightly constructed and miscellaneous. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: See it if you want to be put off of sex for a month - longer if you're older, and perhaps for years if you're very young. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Takes the viewer on an event-filled but ultimately tiresome trudge through the by-now-familiar psychosexual marshes of Lars von Trier's imagination. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Master of controversy Lars von Trier has baited his hook with the promise of lewd spectacle, but he reels us in for a philosophical sermon. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Without an explanation for the protagonist's physical and emotional injuries, it's a head-scratcher. As with Joe's sexual compulsion, scratching can't cure the itch. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: [Von Trier's] internal battles with freedom and restrictions, though not always pretty or wise, provide us with these uniquely troubled stories and images. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: When you get down to the short strokes, Nymphomania is a very good film that could have been a great one. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Von Trier is after nothing less than the human condition here, and even if he doesn't always hit the mark, he absolutely deserves points for ambition. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Chaotic and not especially pretty, it has more of the punkish, radical spirit of The Idiots or Dogville than the gloss or contained drama of Antichrist. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: For those who don't equate sexual appetite with the intricacies of fly fishing, Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 is more tiresome than titillating. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's both dumber and more entertaining than anyone had a right to expect. Read more