Simon Killer
IFC Films | Release Date: April 5, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 10, 2013
With a dense, often impermeable style and a mentally unstable protagonist, Simon Killer is like watching the disturbed anti-hero of "Afterschool" all grown up. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 4, 2013
Though the film’s ice-cold blend of the cerebral and the atavistic can be off-putting, it enables a queasy portrait of moral disengagement that lingers long after Simon has slipped from the screen. Read full review
90
Village VoiceChris KlimekApr 2, 2013
If Simon Killer's tragic drift is predictable, the seedy particulars still engross. And the storytelling is first-rate. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 16, 2013
The movie fares less well when the plot and Simon’s neuroses come to the surface, but there is some tremendous suspense in the movie’s final scene. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithApr 5, 2013
Writer-director Antonio Campos, making excellent use of the queasy rhythms of a percussive musical score, keeps piling up the dread as we wonder just how dangerous Simon can be to the women who keep taking pity on him. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 3, 2013
Simon Killer is a sensual experience that asks the audience to question what it sees and hears. In that way, Campos takes all-too-common feelings of loneliness and disorientation, and shows how they can shade into madness. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineTomas HachardMar 31, 2013
The film has many elements of a thriller, but ultimately Antonio Campos's interest lies much more in profiling, yet never over-determining, his moody protagonist. Read full review
75
The PlaylistWilliam GossFeb 10, 2013
A noir-tinged, noose-tightening ordeal [that] confirms Antonio Campos, if not the entire Borderline Films outfit, as a filmmaker/team to be reckoned with. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 2, 2013
Simon Killer is a beautifully made look at ugliness and brutality, the kind of oxymoronic exercise that fascinates some and repels others. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 11, 2013
Simon Killer...is Campos' bleakest project, which honestly makes me fearful for the future. Still, he is a provocative one to watch — willing to push the aesthetic boundaries as well as the story to extremes even when the risks don't always pay off. Read full review
65
NPRScott TobiasApr 5, 2013
The film is frequently masterful, suggesting the turbulent inner state of an American sociopath who believes himself to be a good guy. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesApr 15, 2013
Brady Corbet is excellent as thoroughly unlikable Simon. Read full review
60
EmpireSimon CrookApr 8, 2013
Black-veined and dark-hearted, this is another persuasive character study from Campos. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 10, 2013
Considering how graphic Campos is willing to be, "restrained" may not the right word for his approach, and yet Simon Killer withholds so much that some amount of frustration is sure to follow. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJun 11, 2013
A relentless and largely unrewarding descent into an ostensibly personal hell. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 2, 2013
Even at its most affecting, Simon Killer rarely seems like more than a cinema-du-Gaspar-Noé simulacrum. The languorous long-takes, dissociative sound design and strobe-light scene transitions meant to mirror this emotional con artist’s skewed view of the world are anxiety-of-influence hand-me-downs through and through—viscera without vision. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 4, 2013
Sort of “An American Psycho’s European Vacation,” this indie dramatic thriller mixes sex and violence and still winds up dull. Read full review
10
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 10, 2013
This lushly and pretentiously made drama about a young American whose worst instincts are unleashed during a stay in Paris endeavors to entice with details of the seedy underworld of La Pigalle but is a turn-off in almost every respect. Read full review
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