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Kill the Poor (2006)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 8
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 6

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 128

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Movie Info

When a marriage of convenience becomes the real thing, Joe moves his pregnant French wife to a tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The street is like a war zone with none of the nostalgic appeal that Joe remembers from tales of his immigrant grandparents arriving in the same neighborhood with a new life. This is the urban frontier filled with comic mixture of gentrifies, homeboys, dealers and local residents simply bent on staying a float.

Unrated, 1 hr. 26 min.

Art House & International, Drama

Directed By: Alan Taylor

Written By: Daniel Handler

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2006 Wide

On DVD: Sep 12, 2006

Cast

Critic Reviews for Kill the Poor

All Critics (8) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (6) | DVD (1)

Can utopian ideals survive such a mugging by reality?

January 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly

| Comment

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

KILL the Poor is sort of a poor man's Rent - - minus the music and the AIDS - - and much blander than the title would have you expect.

January 6, 2006 Comment

Lou Lumenick

New York Post

Top Critic

This lukewarm riff on gentrification and its discontents resurrects the low life and tough times of Alphabet City in the early 1980's.

January 5, 2006 Comment

Nathan Lee

New York Times

Top Critic

A movie with more character than narrative, it's a showcase for the actors, but the storyline could have used some urban renewal.

January 5, 2006 Full Review Source: Newsday

| Comment

John Anderson

Newsday

Top Critic

Shot on a modest DV budget, Kill the Poor isn't pretty, but it's a balanced look at the dirty politics of gentrification.

January 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Benjamin Strong

Village Voice

Top Critic

In spite of its oddities, [Kill the Poor] pulls off a memorable story.

November 27, 2006 Full Review Source: AV Club

| Comment

Tasha Robinson

AV Club

Nowhere near as provocative as its title might imply.

January 7, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

Alan Taylor's film will resonate with any New Yorker who's played real-estate roulette in Fun City.

January 6, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Ken Fox

TV Guide's Movie Guide

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Kill the Poor

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This is a tiny little shoestring ensemble slice of life cross section, of eccentricly struggling to just-plain-not-quite-making-it humanity, produced in part by John Malkovich. Joe Peltz ( David Krumholtz ) buys a landlord abandoned squatter tenament in his grandma's old neighborhood now reduced to desecated

April 2, 2010

Ken Lundgreen

Forget the drama, forget the action (there is little). What this movie offers is a different way to think about money and poverty, and we think about and treat both. While it was mildly unpredictable, the ending left me with more to think about, and examine, than almost any other movie I've seen. For entertainment or

January 19, 2010

Big Bob