Michael
Strand Releasing | Release Date: February 15, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenFeb 16, 2012
This coldly compelling film doesn't try to explain Michael's behavior or analyze his disease. As if doing penance for Michael's sins, it eventually metes out unequivocal punishment, but it is small consolation. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 9, 2012
Writer-director Markus Schleinzer's exceedingly dark drama -- guaranteed to make audiences squirm in their seats -- is emotionally unsettling. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon WiseFeb 27, 2012
As horrifying and hard to watch as you'd expect a paedophile's-eye view of life to be. It's neither sensationalist nor trite, and the questions it asks are intelligent and thoughtful. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfFeb 14, 2012
Brace yourself and go see it. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasFeb 15, 2012
It's a chilling film about the routine business of unspeakable acts. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 14, 2012
Dreadful as the subject matter is, the authenticity of the performances and the skill of Schleinzer's filmmaking are difficult to deny in this portrait of a monster as the bland guy next door. Read full review
70
VarietyAlissa SimonFeb 14, 2012
Illustrating the banality of evil in an impressively controlled and sometimes darkly humorous fashion, Michael takes a coolly nonjudgmental, non-psychological approach to a disturbing topic. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMay 12, 2012
A film that's hard to watch and hard to recommend. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsFeb 21, 2012
It's hard to make a movie about a pederast without being exploitative, and Michael eventually comes to feel like an art house stunt. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenFeb 16, 2012
A strange and troubling little film, a hermetically sealed creep-fest that seems to have no desire to be anything more than just that. Read full review
40
Village VoiceNick PinkertonFeb 14, 2012
Not everything that is human is naturally interesting, and Schleinzer approaches his subject not as an investigator, but as though covering up a crime scene and scrubbing it of anything that might provide insight or empathy or psychological traction. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerFeb 14, 2012
A (relatively) tasteful and restrained approach to potentially lurid subject matter isn't necessarily any better than one that gives in freely to what might be seen as a filmmaker's baser impulses. Read full review
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