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Movies / Upcoming / Bronson
Bronson

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Bronson (2009)

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Reviews Counted:64

Fresh:50

Rotten:14

Average Rating:6.6/10

Consensus: Undeniably gripping, Bronson forces the viewer to make some hard decisions about where the line between art and exploitation lies.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violent and disturbing content, graphic nudity, sexuality and language

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Oct 9, 2009 Limited

Synopsis: In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post... In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post office. Swiftly apprehended and originally sentenced to 7 years in jail, Peterson has subsequently been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement. During that time, Michael Petersen, the boy, faded away and 'Charles Bronson,' his superstar alter ego, took center stage...

With the same brutal yet operatic flair he brought to his previous films, "The Pusher Trilogy, " director Nicholas Winding Refn gets inside the mind of Bronson, and delivers not only a portrait of an artist bereft of an outlet, but also a scathing indictment of celebrity culture.

Tom Hardy plays the title character with disturbing intensity who physically transformed himself for the role. Hardy said, "The opportunity to play such a complex and tormented real-life character was a unique challenge for me, and one that required a great level of commitment and understanding."

Director Nicolas Winding Refn says about his new film, "It is Bronson's unending thirst for celebrity that has kept in prison for so long. And it was this particular aspect of his personality that we tried to capture in the film."

The screenplay was written by Brock Norman Brock (Dogging: A Love Story) and Nicolas Winding Refn. BRONSON is produced by Rupert Preston (Faintheart, Dirty Sanchez: The Movie) and Daniel Hansford and executive produced by Allan Niblo, James Richardson, Paul Martin and Nick Love.--© Magnolia Pictures [More]

Starring: Tom Hardy, Hugh Ross, Juliet Oldfield, Jonny Philips

Starring: Tom Hardy, Hugh Ross, Juliet Oldfield, Jonny Philips, James Lance, Amanda Burton, Matt King, Kelly Adams

Director: Nicholas Winding Refn

Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Screenwriter: Nicholas Winding Refn, Brock Norman Smith
Producer: Danny Hansford, Rupert Preston
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

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Reviews for Bronson

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A bit like Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange reimagined as a one-man stage show and stripped of any political implications.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
10/09/09
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A weird and wonderful anti-biopic

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/13/09
Ali Catterall
Ali Catterall
Channel 4 Film

Gripping and visceral, ugly and beautiful, terrible and haunting, Bronson is quite brilliant.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
07/29/09
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

Bronson is an explosive, theatrical, fourth-wall-busting project that will strike some viewers (like me) as prodigious and others as unbearably pretentious.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
10/08/09
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

in a film closer to A Clockwork Orange or Blue Velvet than to Chopper, brutal ultraviolence and arthouse oddity make for an arresting mix, while it is impossible to take your eyes off Hardy's intense serio-comic turn.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
03/13/09
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies

Hardy’s portrayal is more than a real-life impersonation of Bronson; it realizes the Stunt Movie opportunity to present an actor’s thoroughly romantic admiration of force.

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
10/07/09
Armond White
Armond White
New York Press

An invigorating, refreshingly stylish biopic brimming with dark humor, surrealism and an unforgettable, brave performance by Tom Hardy.

Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | comment Comment
10/12/09
Avi Offer
Avi Offer
NYC Movie Guru

An unnerving, barking-mad black comedy surveying the fractured mind of "the most violent prisoner in Britain," the picture is a divisive beast, shimmying between cracking wise and cracking skulls, often erratically so.

Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | comment Comment
10/08/09
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
BrianOrndorf.com

animalistic

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
09/24/09
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Tom Hardy gives a disgustingly excellent performance.

Full Review Source: BET.com | comment Comment
10/19/09
Clay Cane
Clay Cane
BET.com

A kind of second cousin to Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo" (2008), "Bronson" shares that film's mechanical sense of ambivalent regard for its subject'

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
09/27/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

The tone is surreal, at once visceral and clinical, making Bronson an unsettling experience: savage, disturbing, and yet somehow fascinating.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
10/22/09
David Hiltbrand
David Hiltbrand
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Stylish kick ass sympathetic but revealing biopic of the notorious and pitiful British felon Michael Gordon Peterson.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
10/25/09
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is an easy in for those looking for comparisons in terms of tone and mood and style.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment Comment
10/06/09
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Like a cross between A Clockwork Orange and an extended music video...

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
08/07/09
Garry Maddox
Garry Maddox
Sydney Morning Herald

Hardy chomps down on his once-in-a-career role with stunning ferocity and never lets go. He's extraordinary.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
10/16/09
Gary Goldstein
Gary Goldstein
Los Angeles Times

Not among the best movies this year, but arguably the most creative and novel so far.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
09/09/09
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Refn presents this jolly madman in a variety of showbiz fantasies (wearing clown makeup, addressing a packed theater) to tease out the weird disjuncture between his penal isolation and his tabloid fame in the UK.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
10/30/09
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

Refn directs as a series of episodes, each set up for maximum weirdness and black humor, always emphasizing large, blocky spaces and fluid motion.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
10/23/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Has "cult hit" written all over it.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/23/09
John Anderson
John Anderson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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