37
Metascore
39 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawOnly God Forgives will, understandably, have people running for the exits, and running for the hills. It is very violent, but Winding Refn's bizarre infernal creation, an entire created world of fear, really is gripping. Every scene, every frame, is executed with pure formal brilliance.
- 75The PlaylistJessica KiangThe PlaylistJessica KiangRefn has consistently delivered films that have subverted our expectations, and has proven himself a master at stylistic self-reinvention, but this feels like the first time he’s gone back to any particular well.
- 60The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinOnly God Forgives is the spectacle of a brilliant young director spinning out in style. It’s a beautiful disaster.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOnly God Forgives is a hypnotic fugue on themes of violence and retribution, drenched in corrosive reds.
- 50Film.comJordan HoffmanFilm.comJordan HoffmanThere’s no way to overstate the gorgeous look of this film, but the mannered dialogue and deliberateness of pace becomes less of an homage to Asian revenge films than a parody.
- 40The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneHowever mystifying, or downright boring, you find the result, rest assured that the Refn faithful will swoon. Peace be with them.
- 30VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThe wallpaper emotes more than Ryan Gosling does in Only God Forgives, an exercise in supreme style and minimal substance.
- 30TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissThe collision of violent spasms and art-film ennui leave the viewer’s brain bloody but unfilled.
- 20Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounStyle over substance doesn’t really tell the half of it: you can bathe a corpse in groovy light and dress it in an expensive suit, but in the end that rotting smell just won’t go away.