Click to read the article
Comment
02/09/06
Cowards Bend the Knee (2004)
94 %
Reviews Counted: 17 Fresh: 16 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8/10
Runtime: 64 mins
Synopsis: A 10-part peep show seen through the antiqued foggy glass of Guy Maddin's artistic lens, COWARDS BEND THE KNEE promises an eyeful of thrills, chills, and unpredictable mystery--with a good helping of smut to boot. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Darcy Fehr, Melissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Sue Birtwistle, Michael Bell
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top Critic
A dreamlike tale told by an idiosyncratic storyteller who is hyper-imaginative.
02/06/06
If you've never seen Maddin's work, Cowards Bend the Knee is a good place to start.
01/28/05
If you're a fan of Maddin's expressionist style, you'll find the humor within. Everyone else will be scratching their heads, despite Maddin's extraordinary visual imagination.
01/27/05
There's no denying the imagination and technical ingenuity on display, but this clearly ranks as one of Maddin's less accessible efforts, which is definitely saying something.
08/18/04
Top Critic
Lurid, tawdry and untoward entertainment from Canada's reigning mad genius.
08/13/04
Although only an hour long, the movie -- which uses intertitles to convey dialogue -- may seem endless to those who have not acquired a taste for Maddin's surreal mayhem.
08/13/04
There's a new visual idea every second, each teeming with energy, pitch-dark comedy, and inspired cinematic lunacy.
08/12/04
The pleasure is watching how the fast-paced story careens from one outrageous plot turn to the next. This is one film in which over-the-top is sincere praise.
08/11/04
Most of Maddin's usual preoccupations are in evidence -- guilt, incest, sexual obsession, voyeurism, early cinema and Maddin's greatest love, hockey -- and as luridly entertaining as ever.
08/11/04
There is also something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past.
08/11/04
Top Critic
What's truly extraordinary about this movie -- which strikes me on two viewings as Maddin's masterpiece -- is that it not only plays like a dream but feels like one.
08/10/04
One of the most brilliant works of an unapologetically eccentric, and endlessly inventive, director.
08/08/04
Click to read the article
05/08/04
Top Critic
Even by the standards of Maddin's past works, it is a unique creation -- intense, ridiculous, but also deeply personal.
05/08/04
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Related Forums
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is not a film to review, so sit back & enjoy this 1 cinemaniacs
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is not a film to review, so sit back & enjoy this 1 cinemaniacs
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is not a film to review, so sit back & enjoy this 1 cinemaniacs
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is not a film to review, so sit back & enjoy this 1 cinemaniacs
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/05
Outrageously inventive, or jaw-droppingly rude? Yup, to both
by: Helen Wheels 7/20/04
by: Helen Wheels 7/20/04
IGN RSS Feeds