Cowards Bend the Knee or The Blue Hands
Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: August 11, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
What's truly extraordinary about this movie--which strikes me on two viewings as Maddin's masterpiece--is that it not only plays like a dream but feels like one. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's said to be an autobiography, but that pertains only in the loosest sense. It's a comedy. It's a 1920s silent movie. It is practically indescribable. And it is pure genius. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
There's a new visual idea every second, each teeming with energy, pitch-dark comedy, and inspired cinematic lunacy. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Abortion, incest, infidelity, revenge, and hockey collide at a fever pitch, juxtaposed with such frantic energy that they're pushed to the level of high comedy, funniest at its most dramatic. Read full review
80
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Ultimately, psychotically inventive pic is a formidable addition to the ever-evolving Maddin oeuvre. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
There is also something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past. What makes all this nostalgia for a movie history that never happened is that, as is always the case with Mr. Maddin's work, it's executed with more love than irony and not a whit of derision. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Oddly, once removed from the museum setting and strung together into an hourlong feature, it's Maddin's most cohesive narrative. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
The results are always visually arresting, while the narrative, even by Maddin standards, is completely out in the ozone. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
If you're a fan of Maddin's expressionist style, you'll find the humor within. Everyone else will be scratching their heads, despite Maddin's extraordinary visual imagination. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The overall feel is phantasmagoric--pitched, like most of Maddin's work, in the style of a half-remembered late silent feature or early talkie. Read full review
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