The Butcher Boy 1998

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Anecdotal and increasingly chilling, The Butcher Boy moves from its early prankster spirit into parts unknown with the help of many pungent background touches. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader: Director Neil Jordan and Patrick McCabe adapted McCabe's novel for this bland 1998 shocker that fails miserably as satire, character study, and anything else it might have aspired to. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Jordan is remarkable in his ability to reveal people's inner lives and the interaction between everyday life and an individual's imagination and driving passions. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Globe and Mail: Read more

David Denby, New York Magazine/Vulture: I find myself in an embarrassing position: I think this is a great movie, but I'm not sure. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Butcher Boy works best as a dark comedy and social satire, and is somewhat less successful as a character study of a deeply-troubled young boy whose violent impulses are fed by his unstable environment. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie held me outside; I didn't connect in the way I wanted to, and by the end I was out of sympathy with the material. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Jordan's adaptation of The Butcher Boy (co-written with McCabe) remains a compelling exploration of the permeable border between normal childhood and full-on insanity. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Instead of bathing his story in the warm, lyrical glow of an Irish lament, Jordan mixes domestic tragedy with fierce gallows humor and the stark horror of a Goya painting. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Though the movie sometimes looks as if the authentic Irish wit, colour and blarney has been filtered through the sensibility of a Bunuel or Polanski, Jordan never allows the surreal/expressionist aspects to dominate. Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: Neil Jordan's most accomplished and brilliant film to date, Butcher Boy is satisfying as faithful literary adaptation and inense cinematic experience that brings to mind in theme Kubrick's equally brilliant Cloakwork Orange. Read more