Nymphomaniac: Part 2 2013

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: The Lars von Trier you know and love (or love to hate) is back: cynical, misanthropic, punishing. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A notch more watchable than Volume I. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Sex addiction recovery groups may have just found their new recruitment video. "Nymphomaniac: Volume II" makes the act look about as enjoyable as getting your taxes done. Read more

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times: No one has ever made sex look like less fun. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Nymphomaniac may at best be a digression, but it's not one of Von Trier's weaker ones. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: This is a good movie, but it lacks the visual wonder of the first, along with the sense of play at which von Trier, even at his most controversial, is so good. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Misery loves company, and no one loves both more than this director. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The shocker ending struck me as both gimmicky and ill motivated, but up until then this confirms von Trier as the cinema's most accomplished provocateur, turning his attention here to the eternal conflict between pleasure and morality Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "Vol. I" works. "Vol. II" works you over, and von Trier likes it like that. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's very weird, given, but it's also effective. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: This is a frustrating, fundamentally flawed movie, but if one must consider it two separate animals, this latter one is demonstrably better. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Von Trier is such a masterful filmmaker that every new project comes on with the expectation and air of a totalizing masterwork. "Nymphomaniac: Volume II" creates the unsated sensation of having too much and wanting more. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A last-minute twist (and an intentionally limp finale) implies von Trier intended the whole 4 1/2-hour series as a kind of high-minded goof, and so should you - provided you can keep from looking away during the tougher scenes. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Volume II" is no more fulfilling than "Volume I." Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie, a descendant of such eighteenth-century libertine texts as "Therese Philosophe," is less a slice of life than something told and chewed over. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: True, von Trier films all the ugliness beautifully - with occasional breaks for mystic images, and bad jokes. But to what point? Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Here we go again. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The problem with "Nymphomaniac: Volume II" lies not in its display of erect penises and reddened buttocks, but rather in its dull narrative and overworked ideas. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A long plod ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Exhaustingly repetitive, this movie attempts many of the same things its predecessor did but with less success. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: As in Volume I, filmmaker Lars Von Trier keeps the same themes at play about female sexual power and male attempts to tame and abuse it. But repetition dulls the edge of insights that are meant to be, um, penetrating. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The "Nymphomaniac" films are an artistic dead-end for Von Trier. He is most certainly feeling something, but he's short-circuiting his own emotion, rather than digging into it. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This episode includes so many lavish close-ups of bloody flesh that it seems as if Von Trier is making a "Saw" film. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: For better or worse, the whole exercise in lurid leg-pulling goes out with a bang. 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

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Even if the second half pales by comparison, it's worth watching the whole thing to get a complete sense of von Trier's ideas and of the magnetically underplayed performances by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgard. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Newcomer [Stacy] Martin and old-hand [Charlotte] Gainsbourg anchor these two films with performances you can't take your eyes off. They're the calm eyes of Von Trier's storm. Read more

Michelle Orange, Village Voice: Nymphomaniac is a jigsaw opus, an extended and generally exquisitely crafted riff. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: There's no doubt that von Trier knows how to deploy cinematic language for maximum effect - he is, quite simply, a superb filmmaker. But in this case, he confuses challenging audiences with simply leaving them in the dark. Read more