Calvary 2014

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: I've seen so many movies, with great dialogue, that aren't about anything; here's a film on a fascinating subject, but the dialogue is terrible. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Twice I have left a "Calvary" screening feeling dazed and moved. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A wicked, gimlet-eyed revelation of both Catholic dogma and Irish life today, Calvary has unflinching things to say about the people and the church that defies cliche. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's a film of modest means and great ambition, a darkly comic drama concerned with nothing less than the place of faith, and an embattled Church, in modern life. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It serves as a marvelous showcase for Gleeson, a great old-lion actor who shows, in the film's many close-ups, a quiet, weary yet unbending faith, and a face on which emotion can play like a wave on the beach. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Brendan Gleeson gives a performance of monumental soul in John Michael McDonagh's masterful follow-up to 'The Guard.' Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: What's at stake here, in this grim and grimly comic story, is how a man of God will face his fate. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Gleeson is remarkable in one of the best roles for one of the finest character actors around, who is finally, with this and McDonagh's last film, "The Guard," getting his shot at lead roles. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: "Calvary" is often wound tightest in the most unexpected places. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Gleeson brings his usual fierceness and gravity to the role, and there are fine supporting turns by Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aiden Gillen, and Dylan Moran. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Gleeson carries the film with wonderful, natural authority. He's a little better than the movie itself, which is glib to a fault. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Gleeson is a wonderful actor and he keeps a lid on the blarney. He manages to convey a lot -- fear, anger, compassion, rue -- with only the slightest of squints and frowns. But he's still the center of a cooked-up cavalcade of souls. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: A dark and profoundly funny tale of an institution failing its sheep and its best shepherds. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Brendan Gleeson delivers a typically towering yet warm performance in "Calvary." Too bad the movie's something of a mess. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Gleeson's beautiful acting deserves a better movie. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: McDonagh, for all his agility as a writer, stumbles in fleshing out the story. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: In its steady assemblage of details over an incidental, episodic structure it accrues a building sense of moral gravity. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: With his patchwork red-and-gray beard grown long and his hair draped over his ears, Gleeson resembles an ancient mammoth, and it's quickly clear that his parishioners wish he were extinct Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: It doesn't confront church scandal-priestly crime; it stares into the spiritual void that has been left in its wake. What stares back is lurid, soulless and damned. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The tension of Calvary is fitful at best, and much of the movie trips into silliness, but in Brendan Gleeson -- in his proud bearing and his lamenting gaze -- we see the plight of the lonely believer in a world beyond belief. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: You have a movie about faith that doesn't seem to have any in its own ability to hold our interest. But it does have Gleeson. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Calvary is bleak and corrosively funny in about equal measure. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The reliance on specific genre cliches undermines the movie's more serious intentions. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The stark, natural landscapes are among the movie's most seductive attractions, even if the characters populating them seem calculated for maximum repulsion. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Self-conscious dialogue, stiff characterizations and unimaginative filmmaking prove to be a recipe for the forgettable. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: [Gleeson] projects fierce intelligence, wit, gentleness, ruefulness, soulfulness. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: McDonagh walks a hazardous tightrope from scene to scene, from amiable comedy to black-hearted farce to heartbreaking tragedy, often trying to strike all those notes within seconds. It doesn't all work equally well, but the cumulative effect is powerful. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: I imagine most people will watch the film and merely see the village as populated by vivid eccentrics. But a closer look at these odd, bitter, hostile characters will suggest something darker at work. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Calvary gives Gleeson ample opportunity to explore his talent for anchoring a movie, making it deeper and richer than the script and direction might otherwise allow. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Both the comedy and the violence are watered down by a dark melancholy. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: To say Gleeson "stars" in Calvary seems inadequate. He dominates it ... Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Gleeson is the great anchor of the piece, conveying much often without even saying a word. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Part Father Ted, part Tarantino, this is a wickedly funny black comedy, all fatalism and gallows humour, with a beating heart. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Calvary offers a fascinating look at contemporary attitudes toward the priesthood and Catholicism, as well as an impeccable lead performance by Brendan Gleeson and darkly sharp wit. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Good actors like Chris O'Dowd, Moran, Gleeson, and Walsh are acting their hearts out, but they can't make these characters seem like more than puppets. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The irony and fatalism that have driven "Calvary" forward reach an end point that, while doubtlessly dramatic, doesn't jibe with the Father James we've come to know and love. Read more