Plays like a fever dream recalled upon waking, told with the immediacy of fear couched in relentless pleasure.
Comment
10/13/08
Cowards Bend the Knee (2004)
94
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:17
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8/10
Theatrical Release:Aug 11, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: A 10-part peep show seen through the antiqued foggy glass of Guy Maddin's artistic lens, COWARDS BEND THE KNEE promises an eyeful of thrills, chills, and unpredictable mystery--with a good helping... [More]
Starring: Darcy Fehr, Melissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Sue Birtwistle
Director: Guy Maddin
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Reviews for Cowards Bend the Knee
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02/09/06
A dreamlike tale told by an idiosyncratic storyteller who is hyper-imaginative.
02/06/06
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04/30/05
If you've never seen Maddin's work, Cowards Bend the Knee is a good place to start.
01/28/05
If you're a fan of Maddin's expressionist style, you'll find the humor within. Everyone else will be scratching their heads, despite Maddin's extraordinary visual imagination.
01/27/05
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08/28/04
There's no denying the imagination and technical ingenuity on display, but this clearly ranks as one of Maddin's less accessible efforts, which is definitely saying something.
08/18/04
Top CriticLurid, tawdry and untoward entertainment from Canada's reigning mad genius.
08/13/04
Top CriticAlthough only an hour long, the movie -- which uses intertitles to convey dialogue -- may seem endless to those who have not acquired a taste for Maddin's surreal mayhem.
08/13/04
There's a new visual idea every second, each teeming with energy, pitch-dark comedy, and inspired cinematic lunacy.
08/12/04
The pleasure is watching how the fast-paced story careens from one outrageous plot turn to the next. This is one film in which over-the-top is sincere praise.
08/11/04
Most of Maddin's usual preoccupations are in evidence -- guilt, incest, sexual obsession, voyeurism, early cinema and Maddin's greatest love, hockey -- and as luridly entertaining as ever.
08/11/04
It's bliss, I tell you!
08/11/04
Top CriticThere is also something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past.
08/11/04
Top CriticWhat's truly extraordinary about this movie -- which strikes me on two viewings as Maddin's masterpiece -- is that it not only plays like a dream but feels like one.
08/10/04
Top CriticOne of the most brilliant works of an unapologetically eccentric, and endlessly inventive, director.
08/08/04
Cowards Bend the Knee is paradoxically retrograde and ultramodern.
07/29/04
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05/08/04
Even by the standards of Maddin's past works, it is a unique creation -- intense, ridiculous, but also deeply personal.
05/08/04
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