Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 40
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 20
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 2,741
The first collaboration between legendary filmmakers David Lynch and Werner Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is loosely based on the true story of a San Diego man whose mystifying experiences lead him to commit a shocking act of matricide. Michael Shannon, Chloë Sevigny, and Willem Dafoe headline this psychological thriller written and directed by Herzog, produced by Lynch, and featuring Grace Zabriskie, Udo Kier, and Brad Dourif. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Jan 1, 2010 Wide
Sep 14, 2010
Unified Pictures
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (20) | DVD (8)
What they deliver is the sort of fake mysticism that usually ensues when secular intellectuals try to plumb the depths of religious faith.
Confounds all convention and denies all expected pleasures, providing instead the delight of watching Herzog feed the police hostage formula into the Mixmaster of his imagination.
Lynch and Herzog have tickled us for years with their dwarves and iguanas and impenetrable stories. This collaboration represents the vanishing point of willful obscurity.
As a writer-director with five decades' worth of notable screen work to his credit, [Herzog] certainly can't be faulted for taking risks, even if it means now and then, well, falling on his sword.
Herzog fans will love it.
While watching Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done you might be tempted to murmur, "My Werner, My Werner, What Have Ye Done."
The version of madness displayed by [Michael Shannon's] Brad is not typically dramatic; it's mostly just strange, and dances the line bordering on goofiness.
More like a bad dream than a good film.
It is a film that addresses itself directly to the audience of Lynch and Herzog, and sets out, in its own special way, to "razzle them, dazzle them, razzle dazzle them."
It's like Psycho remade by Ed Wood.
Oddly understated, it's nevertheless as unnerving a vision of disintegration in suburbia as you'd expect from director Werner Herzog and producer David Lynch.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done finds God in a cereal box and Satan on an ostrich farm.
Unsettling but in a good way.
The nods to Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo won't go unnoticed, but the more obtuse touches that bear the stamp of executive producer David Lynch may prove too eclectically eccentric.
My Son, My Son... may be a minor work in the Herzog canon but it's still one of the more fascinating, frustrating, disturbing and beautiful experiences available to cinemagoers this year.
This is a must for Herzog and Lynch fans.
Like many of the characters, the plot is under-developed yet My Son, My Son lingers in the brain and is essential viewing for Herzog and Lynch fans alike.
Enjoyably weird thriller that's a treat for fans of both Herzog and Lynch, with a superb script and great performances from a terrific ensemble cast.
A clash between mental deterioration and confrontational cinema, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done lunges into the fragmented abyss of a murderous lost soul attempting to craft his own personalized religious awakening.
Both baffling and mystifying, the film details a descent into madness with God in a boombox, worshipped oatmeal boxes, and the designated lunatic's proclaimed mantra, minus reference to any white whale though flamingos may be implicated, as Call Me Farouk
With David Lynch and Werner Herzog involved it's just as elliptical and twisted as you might expect.
Directed and co-written by Herzog (with Herbert Golder) and executive produced by Lynch,[the film] offers a whiff of originality in a sea of cinema schlock. But compared to both filmmakers' prior works, it's nowhere near as memorable.
A film that gets increasingly under our skin as it goes along, tying up loose ends along the way while leaving other things maddeningly out of reach
This is Herzog pursuing ideas that fascinate him almost without recourse to whether or not they "work"... wildly interesting, almost too interesting to handle.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done isn't exactly what I was expecting from a collaboration of Lynch and Herzog but it's as good as I was expecting. Michael Shannon is intoxicating in the lead role and he really makes the film. Both directors show themselves here and there but keep their signatures slight and subtle -
February 16, 2011Super Reviewer
As a fan of both Herzog & Lynch, I was extremely excited by the idea of this union. And them when I saw the cast, my interest was peaked even more. Sadly, aside from a few bright spots here and there...things never really gel. Not that you expect a lot of "gelling" from Herzog & Lynch...but ultimately it just feels
January 6, 2011Super Reviewer
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