Synopsis
Failed architect, engineer and vicious murderer Jack narrates the details of some of his most elaborately orchestrated crimes, each of them a towering piece of art that defines his life's work as a serial killer for twelve years.
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Cast
- Matt DillonJack
- Bruno GanzVerge
- Uma ThurmanLady 1
- Siobhan Fallon HoganLady 2
- Sofie GråbølLady 3
- Riley KeoughSimple
- Jeremy DaviesAl
- Jack McKenzieSonny
- Mathias HjelmGlenn
- Ed SpeleersEd - Police Officer 2
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
The film becomes an even broader consideration of individual fascinations and follies, of ways of responding to art without the boundaries of morality and reason. - 91
IndieWire
The House That Jack Built is an often-horrifying, sadistic dive into a psychotic internal monologue, with intellectual detours about the nature of art in the world today, and puts considerable effort into stimulating discomfort at key moments. If you meet the work on those terms, or at least accept the challenge of wrestling with impeccable filmmaking that dances across moral barriers, it’s also possibly brilliant. - 83
The Film Stage
Whether there’s any worth to be found in The House That Jack Built will depend on the viewer’s interest in delving deep into von Trier’s tortured psyche. It’s unlikely anyone will empathize with him and it’s certain many will find the film execrable, but those willing to indulge his excess are offered a wealth of fascinating material. - 50
Screen Daily
Wielding the same grim power as his most obsessive, tormented work, Jack is deeply embedded within its creator’s psyche, and while the results may be cathartic for him, the movie is only intermittently arresting for the rest of us. - 40
CineVue
After all is said and done, ‘The House that Lars Built’ is an impressive construction for an obnoxious purpose. In fact, the best criticism comes from Talking Heads and their song Psycho Killer: “You’re talking a lot but you’re not really saying anything.” - 40
The Guardian
It is an ordeal of gruesomeness and tiresomeness that was every bit as exasperating as I had feared. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
Clearly, all this is designed to provoke adverse reactions. But what if instead of outrage and indignation, the response was a numb shrug? Don't get me wrong — The House That Jack Built is definitely something to see. But what's most surprising is that it's just as often inane as unsettling. - 40
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The film’s most offensive qualities have nothing to do with its grotesque violence and displays of human mutilation, but its terminal navel-gazing and reductive, borderline harmful ideas about art.
