Holy Rollers
First Independent Pictures | Release Date: May 21, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
19
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
The problem is that just as we’re getting to know these characters as people, the movie pulls a veil over them: It loses its nerve and mutates into an only mildly compelling crime drama, albeit one whose protagonist is maybe more tortured than usual. Read full review
70
NPRBob Mondello
Eisenberg lets us see Sam's growing distress, and also the fortitude with which he faces down his fears -- few young actors are as adept at simultaneously conveying panic and bravado. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Never quite catches fire, calling for more edge and narrative tension than director Kevin Asch and screenwriter Antonio Macia manage to deliver. Still, it's an often evocative dip into unique territory fleshed out by a highly convincing cast. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
As a testament to traditions that are usually kept hidden from Hollywood, Holy Rollers is a mitzvah. But as a thriller, it's bubkes. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineRay Greene
Holy Rollers is mostly a marker being put down by some talents to watch, especially Eisenberg, who is greater than fans of "Zombieland" could have imagined. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Holy Rollers fuses a somber, old-world palette with a jittery urban unease--a good mix of tones. It’s also wonderfully acted. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid Fear
It’s gratifying to see Eisenberg move past nerdy-cutie parts; his slim shoulders, it seems, are capable of handling more than Michael Cera’s leftovers. Read full review
60
The New York TimesMike Hale
Mr. Eisenberg and particularly Mr. Bartha give appropriately twitchy, live-wire performances, and the film tells its basically bleak story lucidly and with touches of dark humor. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Eisenberg - seemingly in every other movie nowadays - gives his best performance since 2005's "The Squid and the Whale" in a film that dramatizes a fascinating New York story. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
As a portrait of a subculture few non-Hasidim ever get to glimpse, it's funny, deft, and sharp. The movie's first half goes to great trouble to establish the texture of life in Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn; the second half is a rushed and unfocused tour of the Amsterdam rave scene. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJustin Lowe
Holy Rollers squanders a fascinating premise with predictable execution. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin Chang
Asch's first feature is intelligent, respectable yet curiously muted in tone and impact, never fully catching the viewer up in either its crime saga or its account of individual rebellion within an insular religious community. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAndrew Schenker
Failing to generate either excitement as a crime story or credibility as a morality play, the film ultimately confirms the traditional values that helped push its confused lead to the brink of damnation in the first place. Read full review
50
ObserverRex Reed
Young Mr. Eisenberg and a fine cast give Holy Rollers the ballast it otherwise lacks, but we've been down this road so often that there are times when I could only wonder why I was watching it at all. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A rare drug-crime movie devoid of violence, and pretty much anything in the way of excitement. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Feels staged and exoticized in the way stories about insular communities often do when told by outsiders. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film's failure is to get from A to B. We buy both good Sam and bad Sam, but we don't see him making the transition. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
This is based on actual events, but it feels a lot like television. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Even the portrayal of the Hasidic community comes to feel like window-dressing, welcome for its exoticism but never truly understood. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
An intriguing portrait of an insular community, but its recounting of the seduction of a bright young man by the surrounding culture is heavy-handed. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Director Kevin Asch takes protagonist Jesse Eisenberg on a dour, depressingly straightforward trip from naïveté to spiritual exhaustion. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
His drug-smuggling underworld, specifically the Amsterdam-New York connection, is likewise drably depicted. Is this because director Kevin Asch and screenwriter Antonio Macia deliberately played it down, or are they just incompetent? I’ll be charitable and vote for the former, but sometimes sensationalism is preferable to being altogether unsensational. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The screenplay, by Antonio Macia, is earnest and unsurprising--not a good combination--and neither the director nor the star quite knows what to make of the quirky character inside the traditional garments that signal otherworldly innocence to customs agents. Read full review
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