Lawless
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: August 29, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 29, 2012
Lawless is one of those movies that feels like it's trying to say something more important than it really is. It could have been better, but with Hardy and Pearce on board, it's plenty good enough. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 29, 2012
The action is, overall, as exciting as the primary performances are impressive. Read full review
80
MovielineAlison WillmoreAug 28, 2012
As rollicking and rough as a drive down a dirt road with no suspension, Lawless is a tale of three-bootlegging brothers from Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, who are, in the words of one character, some "hard-ass crackers." Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineKate ErblandAug 28, 2012
Filled to the brim with top-shelf performances from an impressive cast, and with enough well-executed (and often shocking) violence to keep moviegoers of all stripes wide awake, Lawless is a minor classic in the making. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 11, 2012
If Lawless doesn't achieve the mythic dimensions of the truly great outlaw and gangster movies, it is a highly entertaining tale set in a vivid milieu, told with style and populated by a terrific ensemble. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 29, 2012
Hardy, speaking in low, flat, almost musically macho tones, has the bruiser charisma of a caveman Kevin Costner. It's not the money he's clinging to - it's the freedom. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthAug 29, 2012
Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain both shine as the love interests for Jack and Forrest respectively, allowing those characters to have something beyond their business to be fighting for, with the skill of both performers allowing them to be more than just window dressing. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 29, 2012
Kind of like Lawless, a movie about bootleggers more violently authentic than previous takes on the subject, from "Thunder Road" to the first half of "The Last American Hero." What Lawless has over those moonshine melodramas is a striking sense of period and setting. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 29, 2012
The strength of the cast assembled by Australian-born director John Hillcoat is eye-opening. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 29, 2012
A story of entrepreneurship, of family, of fighting for one's rights - the right to make white lightning, and money. It's as American as apple pie. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 28, 2012
Hillcoat and Cave give us more than an action story. They create a world. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellAug 28, 2012
The film's climax is a bit of a jumble, but by then Hillcoat has built his world so vibrantly that it hardly matters. And the hard-charging soundtrack -- featuring Cave, Warren Ellis, Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson -- is an absolute blast. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoAug 26, 2012
Lawless may be full of half-hearted overtures toward depth and emotional complexity, but the film's prestige sheen is mostly a sham; the real focus here is the irrepressible lure of bad behavior. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 31, 2012
Lawless is one of those films that, through seeming serendipity, has a cast that defines its moment. There have been others - "The Breakfast Club," "The Godfather" and "Silverado," to name one irrelevant and two relevant examples. But Lawless really lucked out. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 29, 2012
Lawless offers a compelling, gruesome and instructive time-travel exercise. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 27, 2012
One problem with Lawless, though, is that it feels chock-full of entrances that never quite lead anywhere. [3 Sept. 2012, p.78]
67
The A.V. ClubMike D AngeloAug 11, 2012
A thoroughly familiar-but flavorful and rousing-shoot-'em-up set among Prohibition bootleggers. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 30, 2012
Lawless is a solid outlaw adventure, but you can feel it straining for a greatness that stays out of reach. There's even a prologue and an epilogue, arty tropes signifying an attempt to make a Godfather-style epic out of these moonshine wars. Not happening. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 29, 2012
Lawless is a well-made film about ignorant and violent people. Like the recent "Killer Joe," I can only admire this film's craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 29, 2012
Lawless is very bloody - but the scenery and production design are a whole lot nicer. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 28, 2012
Despite some gruesome images and the psychotic fervor of Rakes, it's a frustratingly slow boil. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 28, 2012
This should've been a really good picture, especially with Hillcoat's crack ensemble. Instead it's a stilted battle waged between the material and the interpreters. It's up to you, the thirsty customer, to decide who won. Read full review
60
EmpireIan NathanSep 3, 2012
An uneven mix of impressively executed, violent clichés about good ol' boys defending the American right to flout the law. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherSep 1, 2012
Stylish and savage, but nothing you haven't seen before. Lawless is something of a blunt instrument but seductive nonetheless. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 29, 2012
Suffers through the occasional lull, but those would be much easier to forgive if they didn't also generate frequent false moments that threaten to take viewers out of the movie. Read full review
60
Time OutStephen GarrettAug 28, 2012
Even the soundtrack is mostly on-the-nose jug-band hokum, except for one cue: a searing old-timey version of the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat," courtesy of octogenarian bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley. If the rest of the movie had the same energy, spontaneity and soul, it would have been more potent than 190-proof hooch. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 29, 2012
Lawless never fully comes together as a whole but it is quite intriguing in spots. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 29, 2012
So stunningly photographed that the blood that spurts early and often in this grisly period piece is extra-vivid red. But that hardly makes the Prohibition-era story of a trio of bootlegging brothers feel authentic. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 29, 2012
Although it's shot in lovely, dusty shades of brown with splashes of Coca-Cola red, John Hillcoat's Lawless is dead weight: listlessly classical and then bludgeoning. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 29, 2012
It attempts to take local history of the illegal whisky trade and raise it to the level of myth. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 28, 2012
With visions of "The Public Enemy," "Bonnie and Clyde" and even "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" dancing in its head, the Prohibition-era drama Lawless winds up being equal to none of them -- even if it holds its own as a modestly respectable genre exercise. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick PinkertonAug 28, 2012
The narrative often seems at odds with the director's pictorialism, trudging when it should be striding toward the climax, isolating the performers on their marks when everything depends on taut blood-ties interconnection. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissAug 11, 2012
Lawless tries to be flawless; as a movie, it's often listless - lifeless. Read full review
42
IndieWireEric KohnAug 28, 2012
Unfortunately, Lawless lacks the same darkly energizing spirit that made "The Proposition" such a revelation: It has plenty of gunplay, scowling showdowns and dust-caked setpieces, but little in the way of dynamic filmmaking to imbue those elements with life. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 29, 2012
For a movie about moonshine, something so imaginatively made, mood-altering and once violently sought-after, it goes down way too blandly. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 28, 2012
There are too many action-movie clichés without enough dramatic purpose, and interesting themes and anecdotes are scattered around without being fully explored. This is weak and cloudy moonshine: it doesn't burn or intoxicate. Read full review
40
The GuardianJason SolomonsAug 11, 2012
Star-studded and violent yet empty as a broken whisky bottle. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickAug 29, 2012
It's hard to make a movie about moonshiners that isn't entertaining, but the lethargic, generically titled Lawless comes perilously close - at least a third of its two hours is devoted to "arty'' shots of landscapes. Read full review
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