Snabba Cash 2010

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Well acted and acutely observed, the film doesn't try to be a conventionally satisfying coke-land action film. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: This Swedish gangster flick blasts out from under you like a high-octane muscle car... Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: "Easy Money" builds to a whopping finale that, without seeming to preach, bears out Mr. Espinosa's statement: "Gangster films should always be moral stories." Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: "Easy Money" breaks no new ground, but it gives us a memorable hero who cannot fathom his cohorts' passion to prevail and prosper or, failing that, to survive. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: We're left with the impression that though the mark may eventually be washed away, this man in a mask will never be truly clean. Read more

Mark Feeney, Boston Globe: The hand-held camerawork may be shaky, and the editing flit furiously - but Espinosa has them shaking and flitting on purpose. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: The story is overcooked and the gritty aesthetic (handheld cameras, desaturated color) borders on cliche. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's one of the best underworld films I've seen in years, and Kinnaman gives a fantastic performance in it. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Class-consciousness is the strongest suit of a drug-world yarn that could have been much more energizing. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This jazzy crime melodrama is engrossing and exhilarating because of Espinosa's impressive command of a wide range of filmmaking skills. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Things move quickly, and while the storytelling can be disorienting at first - with Espinosa cutting among three different plotlines - the charismatic actors keep it together. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A sort of mash-up of "Goodfellas" and "The Great Gatsby." Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The action is fast and fierce, as are the crosses and double-crosses. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: One of the most involving of the many first-rate thrillers that have come recently from Scandinavia. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Easy Money" may well be the crime film of the year, or the decade. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie builds and builds only to land in a zone of ambiguity. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Easy Money's big heist scene is the only action set piece so far this year that was so suspenseful I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Espinosa conducts the swirling tale with crisp efficiency and a cold, cynical conviction that things can always go badly and get shockingly worse. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Although this Swedish vehicle is thoughtfully engineered and has some vivid streaks of color, it could use a jump start to escape the vanilla ice. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Bleaker, quieter, and more despairing than its American equivalents, the film nevertheless plays like a smarter-than-average spin on any number of Hollywood thrillers. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: What really distinguishes it from any number of drug-escapade stories is the unusual and welcome sense of Dostoyevskian moral gravity of the narrative. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Chalk another one up for Swedish crime-thriller novels. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: It's gripping stuff - even if the original title 'Snabba Cash' is way cooler than the English one. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: You can see why Tinseltown took the bait, as the filmmaker is dirty and sleek in all the right places, even when he's being sentimental in all the wrong ones (notably in an extended, far too ambitious climax). Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: So sobering an example of why crime doesn't pay that it could be shown to petty drug thugs to scare them straight. Read more

Alissa Simon, Variety: Easy Money confirms Espinosa's directing chops (it also earned him a gig helming Universal's forthcoming Denzel Washington starrer, Safe House).Performances are strong across the board, with even casting of bit parts coming up aces. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: As the general run of action films blithely defies the laws of gravity and consequence, what a pleasure to find a movie as grounded, physically and emotionally, as Daniel Espinosa's downbeat pulper Easy Money. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: The increasing action and double crosses create an ambient crescendo leading to a final anything-could-happen rendezvous. Read more