Tyrannosaur 2011

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie is cruelly frank about the ways damage cascades down to the powerless, but while it's not for the fainthearted (or for animal lovers), rewards are there. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The characters are trapped, suffocated, pushed through a story that gives them very little room or time to figure themselves out, and that finally turns their feelings into the wan stuff of fable. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Both Mullan and Marsan are expectedly stellar, but it's Colman, a performer better known for TV comedies, who gives the film its deeply moving soul. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: If the script ultimately seems a bit extreme (are there no immediate consequences for Joseph's tantrums or the criminal outbursts of Hannah's abusive husband?), it's often surprisingly successful in pushing the limits of British kitchen-sink drama. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Tyrannosaur sounds like a particularly extreme work of British working-class miserablism, but Considine and his cast have no use for comfortable distance created by cliche. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Paddy Considine's first feature as writer-director comes off like a playwriting exercise, with familiar characters taking every opportunity to wage messy, cathartic arguments or exhume traumatic memories. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The acting - particularly the moving performance of Olivia Colman as a battered spouse living in a grim corner of Leeds, England - is fierce and committed. So why doesn't its impact linger? Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The performances carry the film and occasionally lift it beyond its kitchen-sink lower-depths doldrums. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Like a bruise, black and blue and more deeply felt than it initially seems. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: This is an intense exploration of the corrosive effects of human violence. And its eventual glimmer of redemption is entirely earned, not artificial or consoling. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: It is the kind of film that leaves you limp, exhausted and feeling battered by the end. But its wrenching performances make the beating worth weathering. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If only Considine was not so intent on trying to shock us. He succeeds at that, all right - but in doing so he fails his film. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: Propelled by male rage but softened by Considine's big-hearted understanding of his characters, this bruising slice of urban life rewards our patience. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Considine's intense film isn't easy viewing, and surely isn't pretty, but his actors are remarkable. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: True, the stars are very good at what they do, but so what? Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Hope? Redemption? Catharsis? Tyrannosaur offers such possibilities, but the trip getting there is brutal, indeed. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This isn't the kind of movie that even has hope enough to contain a message. There is no message, only the reality of these wounded personalities. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The principals are superb, with Mullan and Colman doing a masterful job of inhabiting their separate but equal prisons. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: It's not a particularly deep or unique statement, but Considine howls it with sincerity and conviction. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: You won't find two finer performances in recent times than those by Mullan and Colman, who in a perfect world would each have received Oscar nominations this week. Read more

Charles Gant, Variety: Brit thesp Paddy Considine makes a strong writing-helming feature debut with "Tyrannosaur," recycling the same cast, characters and setup he used for his 2008 award-winning short "Dog Altogether." Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Tyrannosaur is British miserabilism at its most numbingly brutal and blunt. Read more