Pieta 2012

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Filled with feisty women and cowering men, "Pieta" twists human emotions into pretzels of perversion. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: After being subjected to disturbing scenes of abject cruelty, rape and torture, my reactions shifted from squeamish revulsion to a reluctant yet growing appreciation for Kim's thematic ambition. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: This tidy, ultimately moving thriller about a loan shark who meets a woman claiming to be his mother offers up the director's vintage blend of cruelty, wit and moral complexity. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: It's like a dour, less stylized version of one of the violent revenge fantasies from Kim's fellow countryman, Park Chan-wook. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: For all its cringe-inducing horror, "Pieta" is visually restrained, striking visceral blows with psychological precision while making little use of gore. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: This is brilliant in some stretches and deplorable in others, with the director's usual extreme violence and depraved sexuality. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The film's big reveal may not come as that much of a surprise; you may figure out where it's going well before the end. But it's the getting there that is, if not exactly fun, then certainly hypnotic. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: May not rank with the operatic madness of Park Chan-wook, or the visceral overkill of Kim Jee-woon, but if you're still not sick of feeling sick, then Pieta might be the movie for you. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Expectedly gruesome in some of its details. But it's the explicitness about capitalism's emotional wreckage that gives this micro-budgeted drama a gut-punch heft. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Like many South Korean films, revenge is a major theme here, although the way Kim handles it is particularly subtle and surprising: It sneaks up on you. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: There is a touch too much of the handheld camera, but in general one senses that the very quality of the way this film was made is one of its justifications for being and for its raw moments. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: More philosophy than film at times, it asks questions without expecting easy answers. What is money? What is love? And what would you do for either? Read more

Keith Phipps, NPR: Kim offers no easy answers, and never backs away from the toughness of the questions, in a film that's ugly in both its material and its presentation. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The newest masterpiece of sex and brutality by South Korean wild man Kim Ki-duk. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Thou shalt not borrow, nor maim those who owe interest, preaches this obsessive auteur, offering one more near-mute seeker of justice. The tragic perversity is gripping. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Fascination returns at the stirring climax, when the plot neatly twists and the film's apparently simple message turns deeper, and blacker. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A mother's love for her child takes on brutal new meaning in Pieta, a film by Kim Ki-duk that's as hard to watch as it is to forget. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's likely that two incestuous interactions between the purported blood relatives will be a deal breaker for most viewers, and both of [those] scenes admittedly play with a degree of poseur provocation. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: An intriguing tale of redemption and rebirth ... that eventually segues into a more conventional revenge drama. Read more