As I Lay Dying
Millennium Entertainment | Release Date: October 11, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
IndieWireBoyd Van Hoeij May 25, 2013
The film seems to have been made to suggest something of Faulkner's style in a cinematic medium, and it's certainly laudable that there have been very few concessions to the marketability of a project like this. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 10, 2013
In rushing in where wise men might fear to tread, Mr. Franco has accomplished something serious and worthwhile. His As I Lay Dying is certainly ambitious, but it is also admirably modest. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 25, 2013
Franco, employing diverse cinematic techniques from split screen (mostly early on) to direct-to-camera address, makes the Bundrens’ time of trial more immediately coherent than it is on the page without disrespecting Faulkner’s oblique style. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineWes GreeneOct 7, 2013
James Franco's readiness in approaching famously abstract source material certainly doesn't translate well into his directorial formalism, or, more appropriately, lack of formalism. Read full review
60
VarietyLeslie FelperinMay 25, 2013
Franco offers up a competently acted, technically adequate Cliff Notes take on Faulkner’s narratively refracted tale of dirt-poor Mississippi folk in mourning. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2013
Franco's As I Lay Dying is a worthwhile movie, approached in an intelligent and creative spirit. The ensemble work from the actors is generally very strong, with a star turn from Nelson as the prematurely aged patriarch, and the story is presented lucidly and confidently. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 9, 2013
Like Franco’s other directorial efforts, it ends up coming across as an academic art object, somewhere halfway between a graduate thesis and a video installation—interesting, but only in context. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMay 25, 2013
As I Lay Dying is another Franco lark that is more of an experiment with form than a fully realized movie. One almost gets the sense that Franco is working out ideas with As I Lay Dying, with the goal of creating a cohesive film as a secondary ambition to simply capturing the feel of Faulkner's prose. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanOct 10, 2013
Alas, the split-screen compositions, slow-motion effects, pensive closeups and prosthetic teeth can’t distract from what’s missing: Faulkner’s pointed but deeply buried observations of the human condition. Read full review
40
The DissolveSam AdamsOct 10, 2013
Putting Faulkner’s dialogue in actors’ mouths only underlines the fact that it was never meant to be read aloud, and simply cutting between one perspective and the next does nothing to evoke the rushing stream of collective consciousness that runs through Faulkner’s South. Read full review
40
Village VoiceChris PackhamOct 8, 2013
Franco adapted a book that often reads like joyless homework into a film that feels the same way. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearOct 8, 2013
They quickly smother whatever greatness was inherent in the material. Faulkner’s vivid, tragic and tender world is nowhere to be found here, and it's a deal breaker by any other name. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithOct 11, 2013
As Franco dilutes the drama with first-year-film-student gimmicks, like split screens and slow motion, it just seems like a dull collection of pointless monologues from actors who can’t even be bothered to match up their accents. Franco is a dilettante, and it shows. Read full review
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