What Doesn't Kill You

Name: What Doesn't Kill You
Director: Brian Goodman
Released: 2008

Synopsis

Two childhood friends from South Boston turn to crime as a way to get by, ultimately causing a strain in their personal lives and their friendship.

100
The Hollywood Reporter
With Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke registering personal bests in the performance category as well as playing magnificently and ultraconvincingly off each other, What Doesn't Kill You, a true story that is powerful and completely riveting from beginning to end.
83
Entertainment Weekly
A tough, authentic street drama born, bred, and shot in the no-spin zone of working-class South Boston.
83
Christian Science Monitor
The overfamiliarity of What Doesn't Kill You is redeemed by a full-scale performance from Mark Ruffalo.
80
The New York Times
It tells a good story well, and in the process quietly says a little something about what it means to look at the American dream from the bottom up.
75
USA Today
Like "The Departed" and "Gone Baby Gone," What Doesn't Kill You is an engrossing, gritty, sharply written and well-acted drama set on the mean streets of South Boston.
75
The A.V. Club
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.
70
Los Angeles Times
Ruffalo's feral vulnerability gives the familiar form a jolt.
70
Film Threat
It is worth seeking out for a brutally honest, achingly realistic, and emotionally compelling look at the other side of petty crime – the slow, painful path to legitimacy.