Child of God

Name: Child of God
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Released: August 1, 2014
Duration: 104 min
Rating: 50

2014

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Ratings

See All

4.4

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4.4	Your Score
4.4	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Child Of God

Now Playing: Child Of God

Movie Details & Credits

| Release Date: August 1, 2014 | R

Summary: Louis Ballard's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard, a violent man, descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation.

Director: James Franco

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 104 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Manohla Dargis

Jul 31, 2014

What Mr. Franco does have is Mr. Haze, whose mesmerizing performance gives the movie its ballast and its fitful, nervous energy. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Jul 31, 2014

Franco’s hand-held camerawork draws the story forward as unfussily as a shepherd leads a sheep, and yet with a kind of ghastly grandeur. This is functional filmmaking more than it is flashy. But there is, at its heart, a single virtuosic performance. Read full review

David Edelstein

Aug 1, 2014

James Franco’s adaptation of the sick little Cormac McCarthy period novel Child of God is surprisingly pretty good. Read full review

R. Kurt Osenlund

Jul 27, 2014

James Franco's general aesthetic is ugly and ambling, not so much because of its brownish-gray monochrome, but because it registers like the jerky result of a college kid wielding a DV cam. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Jul 31, 2014

It’s McCarthy’s complex use of language, rather than the plot’s grueling imagery, that elevate the book. There’s simply not enough insight here to make the punishment worthwhile. Read full review

Sam Weisberg

Jul 29, 2014

As it stands, Child of God is brazenly, outstandingly bad, as vague, pretentious, and pointless as its sorry title. But it's certainly memorable, full of inadvertent howlers and destined to create a whole new subgenre of burlesque, audience-torturing cinema. Read full review

The Playlist Oliver Lyttelton

Sep 17, 2013

The whole thing feels sort of tossed off, like it was made by film students over a couple of weekends. Read full review

SEE ALL 17 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

JLuis_001

Sep 7, 2017

A strange film, its source material is dark and difficult, but Franco as director and screenwriter does not shy away and gets a job well done, but his mistakes doom it to total darkness.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

FilipeNeto

Aug 25, 2019

This movie is definitely not for me.

This is a movie that was hard to see. In fact, James Franco, the director, was certainly aware that the film is unpleasant and would be the target of harsh criticism. In fact, the movie can truly shock the most sensitive viewer and is totally inadvisableThis movie is definitely not for me.

This is a movie that was hard to see. In fact, James Franco, the director, was certainly aware that the film is unpleasant and would be the target of harsh criticism. In fact, the movie can truly shock the most sensitive viewer and is totally inadvisable for those under 18 (in fact, even some more easily impressionable adults should avoid this movie).

Ok, I recognize: this movie is sick. Far from being a movie for everyone, it is a movie for very few. The script goes something like this: a rude and retarded lumberjack from rural America, whose father committed suicide and whose mother disappeared, has just seen his house auctioned off and his rude character and inability to discern right from wrong make him a outlawed, hated by all and avoided by all. Violence and primitive instincts arise in a man who has left society and will devote himself wholly to his most basic desires, including necrophilia, the unhealthy sexual activity he will engage in to the point of killing.

Firstly, we should congratulate Franco and Scott Haze, who are the director / screenwriter and the lead actor. Haze played a nasty and brutal character very intensely and earnestly. Franco was able to direct his actors and give them the material needed for their work. The film has an intense and lively soundtrack, but a very slow pace. Technically, I appreciated the use of handheld cameras for filming to give the movie an even more disturbing tone. But despite the positive features (central actor performance, good soundtrack, good technical aspects, etc.), this movie is not really for me. I hated it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DrBlahBlah

Jun 28, 2020

Dear Franco, please stop ruining the classics. Faulkner and McCarthy deserve better. Thank you.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 3 REVIEWS