Brimstone

Name: Brimstone
Director: Martin Koolhoven
Released: 2016

Synopsis

In the menacing inferno of the old North-American West, Liz is a genuine survivor who is hunted by a vengeful preacher for a crime she didn’t commit.

67
The Playlist
In a way it’s a shame that film builds backwards, because while it adds layers of tricksy narrative intrigue, that trajectory somewhat simplifies the thematic texture as the movie wears on.
60
CineVue
Dark, lurid, sadistic and powerful, it is at the least a fascinating and bold debut, and promises better to come.
60
The Guardian
Brimstone is hampered somewhat by its ponderous, doom-laden pace, and resultant bloated running time, but remains an intriguing slant on the spaghetti western.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
It feels like a sermon delivered by an extremely cine-literate preacher.
58
IndieWire
If, for all of its godawful men, “Brimstone” has a hard time sewing its feminist fervor into anything more than a thin shawl over its bleak spectacle, this disturbingly watchable religious Western makes a solid case that hell is a place on Earth.
50
The Film Stage
Director Martin Koolhoven shows the heaviest of hands in approaching the story.
50
Screen Daily
What’s lacking here, mostly, is a clarity of vision and control of tone that would give this prestige Euro-Western’s mannerisms a focus.
50
Variety
The film has gruesomely effective moments, and one at times gets caught up in the gears of its big interlocked narrative, but it also has serious longueurs.