Why Don't You Play in Hell?
Drafthouse Films | Release Date: November 7, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
92
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeNov 11, 2014
Like so many memorable yet hard-to-describe movies, Why Don't You Play in Hell? takes a ridiculous concept and commits to it fully. You might laugh with surprise or shriek in horror — both, most likely — but you certainly won't dismiss it. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 5, 2014
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? isn’t for everyone, but neither was Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring." Genius is genius, no matter how many audience members may riot. Read full review
83
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonNov 4, 2014
Mostly, the film's very funny, Sono displaying a sense of how to frame and time a visual gag that feels positively Zucker-ish. But there are real stakes, and bursts of real feeling too. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsNov 7, 2014
It is also the post-punk writer/director Sion Sono's most accessible film: a middle-aged filmmaker's tribute to the kind of epic-sized gangster-romance he used to fantasize about making. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNick SchagerNov 6, 2014
Even when it’s trying one’s patience with throwaway gags or bits of over-the-top brutality, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is a rather canny celebration of the very type of no-holds-barred cinema that it’s peddling. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoNov 3, 2014
Refusing to mourn anything, displaying a Futurist-style disdain for the past, Sion Sono imagines a world in which static adherence to old ideas leads directly to doom. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonNov 4, 2014
The film's blast of self-mocking overkill can be charming. Read full review
60
The DissolveScott TobiasNov 6, 2014
Alternately exhilarating and tedious, Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is Sono’s tribute to moviemaking—specifically an elegy to 35mm film, though the tone could hardly be called mournful. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJan 3, 2015
It’s a self-reflexive tour de force, laugh-out-loud in its outrageousness, a true gift from the Movie God, who, if not Tarantino, is in this case probably Sam Peckinpah. You just have to endure 90 minutes of inanity to get to enjoy it. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldNov 6, 2014
Goofball antics and a terrific, raucous finale can’t make up for the essential slackness of its repetitive comedy and punk chest thumping. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithNov 5, 2014
A Quentin Tarantino knockoff from Japan, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? has some of the master’s nutty energy but little of his cleverness. Read full review
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