62
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88RogerEbert.comRogerEbert.comAn incredibly refined emotional experience, the splattered emotions on its dirty canvas nonetheless the product of a specific, deeply felt directorial vision.
- 80Village VoiceMelissa AndersonVillage VoiceMelissa AndersonNever a banal depiction of dysfunctional group dynamics, Stinking Heaven, which was shaped, as in Silver's previous work, largely through improvisation, remains consistently absorbing.
- 80The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard Brody[Silver's] densely textured images have many planes of action, which he parses with pans and zooms, revealing the volatile bonds of a group on the verge of combustion as well as the howling horrors of unremitting solitude.
- 75Slant MagazineCarson LundSlant MagazineCarson LundAs in Nathan Silver's previous work, what could have been a rote retread of Pasolini's Teorema blossoms into a study of factional identity and power dynamics.
- 70VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeWhether scenes tilt toward very mordant farce or gut-stabbing trauma, there’s a compelling sense — crafted or otherwise — that the actors are driving the tone from scene to scene, with Silver and his incisive editor Stephen Gurewitz determining the emotional transitions between them.
- 60The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe brisk clip and dashes of dark humor ward off actual despair, but the length poses challenges for some of the heavy lifting of character growth.
- 58The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloLike many of Joe Swanberg’s recent efforts, Stinking Heaven plays like a potentially strong idea for a movie that never quite takes shape, which is the problem with “writing” a movie while the camera rolls.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckFor every emotionally resonant scene, there's another that seems to drag on pointlessly, although the filmmaker once again displays a talent for delineating the emotional tensions that develop when disparate characters are thrown together.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenLos Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenWhile the early going might bring to mind the Dogme 95 school of stripped-down filmmaking...the result, with its collective of uniformly unsympathetic characters, ultimately overdoses on all the unscripted bad vibes.