Goodman's directing shows a sure hand at the Irish Goodfellas genre, and his actors (including Goodman himself) rally to give the picture plenty of credibility.
Comment
09/15/08
What Doesn't Kill You (2008)
66
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:21
Rotten:11
Average Rating:6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: For his assured directorial debut, character actor Brian Goodman reaches into his troubled past. WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU tells the tale of two best friends who grew up in South Boston and fell into a... [More]
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Amanda Peet, Will Lyman
Director: Brian Goodman
Reviews for What Doesn't Kill You
Nothing really going on here
12/15/08
I thought that Brian Goodman managed to put us in this hardscrabble South Boston neighborhood.
12/15/08
Goodman doesn’t allow even a hint of postmodernism or self-consciousness to creep into What Doesn’t Kill You, and though the movie’s various heists and shootouts are gripping, they aren’t especially kinetic or stylish.
12/19/08
The film is about coming out the other side and using your newfound strength to change.
12/05/08
I guess I should just be happy it didn't end up worse and hope these guys don't come hurt me for saying all this.
12/12/08
The overfamiliarity of What Doesn't Kill You is redeemed by a full-scale performance from Mark Ruffalo.
12/19/08
The film is caught in the tension between wanting to provide depth of social implication and gunplay action but the symbiosis doesn't multiply the effect.
01/24/09
There's a realism to this story we don't often see in crime dramas, and that can only have come from someone who actually lived through it themselves.
12/09/08
No gold star for originality, but nicely acted crime tale.
11/30/08
Kill You, while stewing in the juices of unapologetic formula, is a more of a direct injection of stark criminal behavior punctuated by exhilarating performances and a soulful dedication to the moody rhythms of despair.
04/21/09
For a true-crime story, there's surprisingly little dramatic arc.
06/07/09
A tough, authentic street drama born, bred, and shot in the no-spin zone of working-class South Boston.
12/03/08
The story is generic and uncompelling, coming across as just another gritty drama about a major city's criminal underbelly.
09/20/08
Been there, seen that-many times-is the best one can say for this wholly predictable autobiographical account of a life in crime.
12/17/08
Though hardly a failure, What Doesn't Kill You is in the final measure definitely not what it could have been.
12/11/08
We've all seen this film before -- two hoodlum friends from the tough, violent streets of South Boston trying to cope with the lure of easy money and the offsetting threat of jail time -- but we've never seen it this well done.
09/15/08
Top CriticIt feels, if not like real life, at least like a movie you haven't seen before.
12/12/08
Top CriticSimply too familiar and ponderous to succeed in a genre with movies as riveting as The Departed.
12/11/08
Little more than a middling variation on gangster thematics, better explored in The Sopranos and elsewhere.
12/10/08
Latest News for What Doesn't Kill You
December 09, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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