Knuckle
ARC Entertainment (II) | Release Date: December 2, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 5, 2012
With Knuckle, Palmer offers a thorough -- and extraordinarily compelling -- portrait of the Travellers. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonNov 27, 2011
Chock full of larger-than-life characters, it's an enthralling insight into a raw, bloodied world. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 7, 2011
Knuckle is the real deal, with the strapping, brutally human Traveller clans butting heads with not only one another but with the very future of their subculture's existence. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnDec 12, 2011
With the exception of a few candid moments featuring James at home, Knuckle isn't particularly well-made, but there's an inherently fascinating quality to the material. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithDec 9, 2011
Thick-necked, booze-loving and angry men beat each other with their naked fists: so far, so Irish. But the feuding clans in the documentary Knuckle actually think their habits of antagonizing one another can be fixed by just one more problem-solving brawl. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 8, 2011
The film is very much like a home movie in trying to tell its story of families and feuds complete with the bad lighting, bad camera angles and meandering observations. Though you will wish for more polish and insight, its unruly action is hard to resist. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick SchagerDec 7, 2011
Palmer's grainy, handheld camerawork won't win any aesthetic prizes, but it's in tune with his subject. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberNov 27, 2011
Palmer keeps his focus tightly on the families, which makes the movie admirably unpretentious but also incomplete. Nevertheless, the picture has a vibrant central character in James McDonagh, the leading fighter in the clan who begins to question the rites of violence. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangNov 27, 2011
As anthropology lessons go, Knuckle is strong stuff, and it's easy to accept Palmer's conclusion that the problem he's showing us may well have no solution. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreDec 7, 2011
It's an involving but frustrating peek into a private culture involved in a self-defeating cycle of violence and mythologizing. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 9, 2011
While it's frustrating that Mr. Palmer doesn't dig deep into the complexities of the fights, one of the movie's strengths is the honesty with which he confesses his doubts about them. Read full review
60
NPRScott TobiasDec 9, 2011
For all their brutality, the fights are so seductive and exciting that their consequences - the physical and mental toll exacted from the men and their families - sometimes fail to register. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 8, 2011
While the film becomes slightly redundant, the anger and strife its characters cannot overcome is awful, poetic and, frankly, astonishing. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineBill WeberDec 7, 2011
A documentary of bareknuckle fights among feuding Irish Traveller clans can't give the participants' self-perpetuating, dead-end rivalry the scope of tragedy. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearDec 7, 2011
Palmer's acknowledgement of his own involvement in, and thrill at watching, these events speaks volumes, but simply showing generations of pasty, fat men pounding each other to a pulp shouldn't be mistaken for an in-depth exploration of Gaelic machismo. Read full review
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