13 Tzameti
Palm Pictures | Release Date: July 28, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The language and the landscape is French, but the sensibility and style is unmistakably Eastern European. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Starts slowly but builds, Hitchcock-style, to a terrifying crescendo. And don't fool yourself into thinking you know what's going to happen. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
13 Tzameti is cut from the same cloth as the humans-hunted-for-sport classic "The Most Dangerous Game" - and from that early talkie's many subsequent remakes and rip-offs, including John Woo's "Hard Target." Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A stylish and unnerving thriller that sucks you into surreal scenes of horror with the chilly confidence of a nightmare. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Géla Babluani is unmistakably a first-timer, and his debut project is raw and rough-edged. But he aces the way simple images can make the most of a simple story. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Shot in neorealist black-and-white, it opens like a gritty slice of social drama, then takes a sharp turn into bleak, existential horror. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The resulting jolts add up to one unforgettably surreal nightmare. Just be sure your heart can handle any surprises headed your way. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Creating a mood that suggests an unholy mix of Czech novelist Franz Kafka, American pulp fictionist Jim Thompson and French heist moviemaker Jean-Pierre Melville, Babluani's story is about the perils of get-rich-quick schemes. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
The film's simplicity and intensity are aided by the crisp black-and-white photography of Tariel Meliava. Director Babluani's greenness shows itself in the ending, which is weak, but the film nevertheless stays with you. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Take 13 Tzameti for what it is: a tightly screwed shocker, a suspense tour de force that proceeds through a harrowing chain of events with alarming confidence. Read full review
70
VarietyDeborah Young
Shot like the grunge version of a '50s noir thriller from France (or Soviet Georgia), the black-and-white 13 (Tzameti) turns into a shocker of Tarantino proportions in protracted sequences of explosive violence that leave viewers quaking. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The work of both Babluani brothers is weirdly stilled and mature, already devoid of the need to show off--serves only to thicken the horror. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Although it's likely too stark for everyone, 13 Tzameti offers a mind-blowing experience for anyone willing to go along for the ride. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
One wonders what its objective is other than the cynical obliteration of all hope. Read full review
63
PremiereEthan Alter
13 Tzameti is certainly nightmarish, but it's the kind of nightmare that fades instead of lingering on in the memory. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
13 (Tzameti) is an existential horror film, a violent prank, a metaphor for modern Europe, and a first-time director's startling calling card. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
For me, the meticulous style, the fascination with ritualized (and ludicrous) violence and the film-geek self-referentiality all seem like markers of a film made by a young man, for other young men. If I were 23, and full to the brim with dark-hearted existentialism, I might love it too. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Not for the faint-hearted. Read full review
60
Village VoiceRob Nelson
The artiest entry in the ever growing torture-movie genre, this playfully wicked French thriller from twentysomething provocateur Gela Babluani blasts its way into your brainpan with the help of black-and-white widescreen cinematography whose striking but smooth textures better suit the upwardly mobile auteur than his poor protagonist. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen Holden
With its icy cynicism and desolate settings, the film evokes the work of the young Roman Polanski in his sadistic trickster mode. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
We are meant to think about a society that revels in this moral pit. But all that puzzled me was why an audience would need a film to immerse it in wanton, speciously motivated death when the television news provides so much of it every day. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
French art thriller 13 Tzameti has a literal hair-trigger premise, yet it's so lacking in human dimensions that it creates virtually no suspense. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's so easy to be seduced by technique... What a disappointment, then, to find the technique pressed into the service of little substance and lots of fashionable cynicism.
30
Washington PostAdriane Quinlan
These actors move with the labored blocking of a high school play. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
13 (Tzameti) might seem allegorical, but it’s too cynically concerned with what works as entertainment to offer larger truths about human existence. Read full review
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