Popular reviews

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★★ 6

  The only film directed by Czech costume designer, art director, and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová, Killing the Devil is absolutely bonkers. Set almost entirely within the apartment of an immensely appealing, nearly 40-year-old unnamed woman (Jirina Bohdalová), it tells the story of her temporary fascination with an uncouth, gluttonous man (Vladimír Mensík as Bohous Cert), whose attention convinces the aging woman he is the man for her, despite the fact that all he cares about is her cooking.

  The first half is sometimes difficult to watch because of the woman's complete devotion to such an undeserving swine, but it also offers a wonderful showcase to the actors: for Bohdalová her dynamism and magnetism — thus making it all the more obvious…

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  Review by butcherey

  a man gnawing on my furniture leg is definitely a red flag, mansplaining darwin is worse

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  Review by mosquitodragon ★★★½ 3

  Ester Krumbachová was a key figure in the Czech New Wave but this was her only director credit. Her expertise was in design, and Killing Mr Devil feels like a very "designed" film - mostly contained within a single location with the occasional "external" scene located in deliberately underdeveloped sets - little more than black backgrounds, minimal props and set dressing. But Kate's apartment is highly detailed, as befits a woman who takes the utmost pride in her home and her hospitality. If her sitting room is the version of herself she presents to society, the kitchen is her inner being, and here is where we get a space crammed with paraphernalia and utility. It seemed very redolent of traditional…

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  Review by AntoniusBlock7 ★★★★

  A satire of male behavior so scathing that it might serve as a “what not to do” instructional video for men dating women. Seriously, this guy (Vladimír Mensík) is so self-absorbed, condescending, and gluttonous that it would be annoying if it weren’t so comical. He gnaws her chair legs like a rodent, for god’s sake, and then complains that she values her furniture more than him when she gets upset.

  While she (Jirina Bohdalová) puts a lot of care into her home, cooking, and appearance, he’s a complete slob, oblivious to her except as a way of satisfying his appetite. She lays out an array of delicious looking dishes for him which he enjoys in a piggish way, but he…

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  Review by Rock ★★★★

  The satirical points here aren’t hard to grasp, but the sheer absurdity of the proceedings and the very funny lead performances keep this very watchable. Looks very striking thanks to a colour scheme that brings to mind the Technicolor knockoff used by Poverty Row studios and the animation-inspired construction of visual gags. I do think the movie loses a little when it breaks things up into multiple nights and locations, as I found the initial stretch, where the heroine slowly realizes how terrible a dare the guy is, to be the strongest, but I will concede that some of the best gags come later on (bite mark forensics, floating outside the window like Dracula). 

  Check this one out before it leaves the Criterion Channel, folks.

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  Review by czechjulie ★★★★★ 2

  I finally saw it again after many years of not watching it, I was probably in primary school the last time I saw it. I only remembered loving it and I was worried maybe I wouldn't like it as much anymore but boy, was I wrong. This movie is just so good, so funny and so bizarre in the best way possible. Everything about this movie is very good, the production, acting, costumes, just every detail. And I didn't remember at all it being about gender roles and such which made it even more intriguing to me. It proved to me it's still one of my favourites.

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  Review by Marya E. Gates ★★★★ 1

  Krumbachová's art direction here is to die for. I need this apartment. Also, vindication for all raisin lovers out there.

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  Review by Mary ★★★½

  every time i'm like "this guy can't get any hungrier!" he proves me wrong

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  Review by julia ★★★★ 3

  wanna eat the food wanna wear the clothes

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  Review by Film at Lincoln Center

  Ester Krumbachová’s sole directorial effort puts a surrealist, satanic spin on the battle-of-the-sexes farce as a hot-to-trot Miss Lonelyhearts (Jirina Bohdalová) looking for a man gets more than she bargained for when she begins wooing the boorish Mr. Devil (Vladimír Mensík), an insatiable glutton who turns out to be (literally) the boyfriend from hell. A groovy mélange of ’60s lounge muzak, eye-popping art direction, and sumptuous Czech cuisine, The Murder of Mr. Devil is a subversive anti-rom-com that coolly cuts male chauvinism down to size and luxuriates in female pleasure, desire, and liberation.

  Playing on May 24 & 27 during our Krumbachová retrospective.

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  Review by reserva_felipe ★★★½

  of course the devil reads freud and nietzsche

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  Review by JulesLarson ★★★★

  One of the best movie titles out there. Couldn't have expected such a tweezer-level rigorous, fairy-tale absurdist upheaval of hetero norms to be this funny. Total shame Ester Krumbachová didn't direct anything else.