Popular reviews

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★½ 4

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  so movie money sure isn't as brave as it used to be, huh?

  good god. this was put out (or not) by WARNER BROS! how timid and small-minded our commercial art has become.

  such gloriously righteous indignation, and Jarman's neo-futurist design still gives the madness a divine scale. any movie that ends with someone furiously masturbating as an expression of their own eternal misery is fine by me. perfect halloween viewing.

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  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★★ 22

  One of THE most excruciatingly difficult cinematic experiences out there. It probably wasn't beneficial for my mental health to watch this and Under the Skin in the same evening. I hated Vanessa Redgrave's character so much that I might honestly hate Vanessa Redgrave now, haha. Kidding, kidding, but wow, what a deplorable human being Sister Jeanne was (albeit a product of her environment). Then again, what character in this film wasn't a deplorable human being and an abuser of their faith - aside from maybe Urbain Grandier during the latter half of the film (as well as his wife, though her role was relatively minimal)? I've always thought it to be true that, while religion isn't an inherently bad creation,…

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  Review by nathaxnne [hiatus] ★★★★★ 27

  Given any chance to do so, and any means, we shall make a hell of our own earth, with our own lives, our own bodies and the bodies of others. We are the devils. All dogma contains within it necessarily its own blasphemy, all orthodoxy contains its heresies. A union of church and state produces something that is neither, but far greater in both appetite and execution than either. A thirst so powerfully strong, it gave more than it could give, the air turned to ash, the streets choked with bodies, bodies themselves run through with pestilence, riven with war and torture, a chalice of deprivation overflowing, and yet this is never enough. More and more fall so that more…

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  Review by Dyrnott ★★★★ 6

  To tell the truth I enjoyed this movie more this 2nd time watching it! From the legendary director Ken Russell. The 1st time I saw it the movie was a bit overwhelming! The 2nd time I was prepared for the story and even though I did enjoy the first time it left me with such a bad feeling in my gut. This time I could watch it without the emotion created in the first viewing. It is beautifully crafted and even though I hate some of the characters they did a wonderful of making a hateable character. Excellent acting. The movie at times is bonkers! Not a movie for everyone very depressing to some. If you are able to deal with it check it out.

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  Review by sarah squirm ★★★★★ 2

  beautiful movies make life worth living!!!

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  Review by Edgar Cochran ★★★★★ 37

  ***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***

  Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu and of Fronsac (1585 - 1642) was a French clergyman and statesman that ultimately became a cardinal in 1622 and the chief minister of King Louis XIII in 1624. During his rise to power in both the Catholic Church and the French government, he looked after the destruction of domestic factions. This ultimately led him to apply a corrupt establishment that transformed France into a centralized state. He advocated for the destruction of fortified cities and with a government of their own in order to seize total control of France under the vision of Church and State being unified while crushing the Protestants that rebelled against the…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 10

  90

  Unrivaled debauchery. Depicts Church and State as two extremes, the happy medium only uncovered when any disconnect from either is attempted. That a priest is portrayed as a drunken playboy billionaire only to lose his influence over the prospect of sexual freedom for all via a band of nuns who desire him is precedent - who would've thought the State interferes when people find commonality in being free? Ken Russell's profane sense of crowd-control and sustained chaos is simply stupendous, with the towering architecture and delectable costuming being set-dressing for the outrageous. A film of figures and symbols perverted and unleashed from their sole design.

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  Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 9

  Still hits me like a ton bricks—mythical Ken Russell mystique at its finest… plus Oliver Fucking Reed.

  Naughty.

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  Review by Emma Stefansky 1

  Father Urbain Grandier??? nah what a jerk what a— [trips] [hundreds of thousands of photos of Father Grandier spill out of jacket] w-what a fuckign asshole i these arent mine im just [gathering them up frantically sweating] listen i just listen fuck [thousands of pictures of Father Grandier scatter across the floor] shit fcuk im holding them for a friend just LISTEN

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  Review by Nick ★★★★½ 6

  The Devils is a flamboyantly farcical and blasphemous take on the true dark history of Christianity and the devilish ways human psyche reacts to sexual repression and humanly desires. If you think Scorsese's Silence is dark, try The Devils and see what dark really looks like.

  The Devils recollects a sexually repressed nun's one-sided obsessions with a priest, and the chaotic witch hunt and group hysteria that comes as a result. It's laced with tonally morbid humors, elevated by its parodic portrait of easily impressionable nuns and hypocritically fanatic priests that's extremely hilarious in a dark way, especially to those without a religious affiliation. What's most impressive about The Devils is the masterful depiction of the two main characters --…

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  Review by laird ★★★★½ 3

  "...find some good man. [pause] They exist."

  Do they? Finally crossing this movie off my list: I was waiting for a full uncut domestic release or a 35mm screening, and the latter came first. I don't care what was cut, 35mm was the way to see it. The Derek Jarman design of this movie alone warrants its inclusion in the pantheon of debauched, excessive masterpieces such as Holy Mountain, Fellini Satyricon, Caligula, Passolini's Life Trilogy, to name a handful.

  I was expecting this to be sacrilegious, but what I wasn't expecting is that despite all of the superficial offenses, at the core is a damnation not of religion but of men and their corrupt institutions. So corrupt are men, church…

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  Review by marcricov ★★★★★ 7

  Not sure why people find this shocking, I mean, this is just a general day in the life of priests and nuns just vibin’.