Twentynine Palms 2003

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Muddled. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: [Dumont] forces viewers to question not only what's on the screen, but ultimately, the very nature of reality. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A textbook example of how a director can strip away plot, motivation, character, and meaning and still leave arrant pretension standing tall. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Nihilism is a crude instrument, even for those with talent, and it can be especially hazardous for those who believe, as Dumont apparently does, that the sum total of existence is 'sex, love and evil.' Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: In Twentynine Palms, writer and director Bruno Dumont takes his cultural revenge on the United States, attacking countless American stereotypes and in the process reinforcing an equal number of cliches about arrogant French auteurs. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This is one of those films in which the Act of Driving becomes a 10-minute statement of high emptiness. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Over and over in Twentynine Palms, Dumont rubs our noses in every detail of this tumultuous, yet oddly inconsequential, relationship. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Cannot entirely be dismissed, because the director so adamantly knows what he's doing. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The sustained force of Bruno Dumont's vision of existence as a swirl of brute instincts may not be easy to absorb, but it marks him as a major filmmaker. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Lisa Nesselson, Variety: [Brown Bunny] sports the narrative complexity of War and Peace compared with Twentynine Palms. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Dumont's taste for the elemental has always flirted with the moronic. But this time, he's dozed off at the wheel and drifted well over the line. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's alternately monotonous, hot and dramatic, which makes for a peculiar, not entirely unsatisfying atmosphere of neo -- or is that post? -- noir. Read more