Synopsis
Howard Spence has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his disgust for his selfish and failed life with alcohol, drugs and young women. If he were to die now, nobody would shed a tear over him, that's the sad truth. Until one day Howard learns that he might have a child somewhere out there...
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Cast
- Sam ShepardHoward
- Jessica LangeDoreen
- Tim RothSutter
- Gabriel MannEarl
- Sarah PolleySky
- Fairuza BalkAmber
- Eva Marie SaintHoward's Mother
- James Roday Rodriguez1st AD
- Jeffrey Vincent Parise2nd AD
- Majandra Delfino1st Girl
Recommendations
- 75
Entertainment Weekly
Shepard's charisma has always reached back to an earlier time, so it's easy to accept him as a kind of pre-counterculture hero - Eastwood without the sneer - who aged into the era of tabloid scandal. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Don't Come Knocking expresses itself with deadpan humor, striking imagery, Western iconography and outbursts of strong emotions. - 70
The New York Times
Filled with haunting visual panoramas. One of the most resonant is a nighttime shot of the Elko skyline dominated by a glittering casino. Evoking a once and future gold rush, it says more about the Old West and the New West than all of Mr. Shepard's elliptical, stagy dialogue can muster. Such powerful images make Don't Come Knocking well worth contemplating. - 67
Christian Science Monitor
Judged on any kind of rational level, this film is a mess, and Fairuza Balk, as a punky friend of Howard's son, gives the single most annoying performance I have ever seen. But Franz Lustig's cinematography has a Walker Evans-like power. - 60
Variety
Strikes some resonant chords but also hits notes that simply don't ring true and are borderline risible at times - 50
Village Voice
It's "Broken Flowers" with bourbon and ten-gallons and meta-country soundtrack warbles. - 50
New York Daily News
In what is more a cry of regret than a coherent story, Shepard's character mopes his way through meetings with an old girlfriend (Jessica Lange) and the grown children he sired, the only apparent lesson being that bad behavior has a way of circling back on you. - 40
Los Angeles Times
Despite a fine cast, the film feels as lost as Howard, unsure of its direction or tone.
