My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done 2009

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: One of Herzog's quirky misfires. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Viewers will have to decide for themselves whether My Son is a terrible, terrible movie or an uncompromising Herzog experiment in reality-bending. Here's a suggestion: consider the track record. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: As a writer-director with five decades' worth of notable screen work to his credit, [Herzog] certainly can't be faulted for taking risks, even if it means now and then, well, falling on his sword. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: What they deliver is the sort of fake mysticism that usually ensues when secular intellectuals try to plumb the depths of religious faith. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Herzog fans will love it. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: A surreal descent into a twilight zone created by the twisted sensibilities of two cinematic geniuses. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Confounds all convention and denies all expected pleasures, providing instead the delight of watching Herzog feed the police hostage formula into the Mixmaster of his imagination. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Lynch and Herzog have tickled us for years with their dwarves and iguanas and impenetrable stories. This collaboration represents the vanishing point of willful obscurity. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's likely that only Herzog would dare to, and succeed at, resolving this singular cinematic object by contemplating the fate of an abandoned basketball. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: My Son, My Son... may be a minor work in the Herzog canon but it's still one of the more fascinating, frustrating, disturbing and beautiful experiences available to cinemagoers this year. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Herzog has gone beyond Good and Evil to reinvent himself as a candidate for the wiggiest director of comedy in America today. Read more