Child of God 2014

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Beautifully shot, well acted, and the score is lovely, but the film has nothing to say about the human degradation in which it wallows. If you're gonna make me smell dung for two hours, at least fertilize my lawn. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: So, did all that industry pay off? With Child of God (pictured), from Cormac McCarthy's 1973 novel, the answer has to be: Eh. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Child of God'' is, like the source novel, loosely inspired by the notorious real-life cannibal murderer Ed Gein. So was Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho.'' Nobody left that classic bored - but they sure will be by Franco's film. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: What did we do to deserve James Franco? Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Franco has emerged with an extremely faithful, suitably raw but still relatively hemmed-in adaptation that compares favorably with his earlier films, yet falls short of achieving a truly galvanizing portrait of social and sexual deviance. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Child Of God is a lurid backwoods exploitation cheapie that just happens to be based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy. Read more

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly: [Franco] should get credit for ... possessing the willpower to make a movie that virtually no one is going to see. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: There's a weird purity to the storytelling even at its untidiest, which enables Franco to remain true to the spirit of McCarthy's vernacular lyricism. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: "Child of God" fascinates like a song sung just out of tune but rhythmically sturdy enough to keep you listening in the hopes it'll right itself. Read more

William Giraldi, The New Republic: Franco is determined to humanize Ballard in a misguided quest to make him likable, as if likability were a conduit to credibility and not just a pandering to audience members. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: It's hard to see past the lurid details of the Tennessee tale, adapted from Cormac McCarthy's 1973 exercise in backwoods noir. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's McCarthy's complex use of language, rather than the plot's grueling imagery, that elevate the book. There's simply not enough insight here to make the punishment worthwhile. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Make no mistake: There is nothing pleasant about "Child of God," James Franco's very fine adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's short, pitiless novel. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Too bad all this grungy intimacy renders him neither knowable nor fascinating as he hunkers down in a shack and then in a cavern that doubles as a crypt. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This is ambitious, challenging filmmaking, elevated by John Franco's compassion and Scott Haze's revelatory acting. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: There's no denying Franco's ambition, and in "Child of God" you can see evidence (almost for the first time) that he's reaching for something he may one day attain. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Child of God is shot with rough, raw energy and steeped in a suitably barren Southern atmosphere. It's also a chore to sit through. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: It could have been so much worse; we wish it was a lot better. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This wrong-headed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's taut 1973 novel, as interpreted by director James Franco, spends too much time trying to create an element of compassion for this devilishly aberrant killer. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Time and again I found myself looking at a wobbly shot of somebody's slouched shoulder, or a not-very-interesting left ear, wondering what information, exactly, these visuals were intended to convey. Read more

Sam Weisberg, Village Voice: Child of God is brazenly, outstandingly bad, as vague, pretentious, and pointless as its sorry title. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Surprisingly pretty good. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Franco keeps you in your seat, mainly by harnessing the power of Haze ... Read more